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THE REASONABLE 
RELIGION 

By 
Rev. Charles Coke Woods, Ph. D. 




(CtttctMttatt : 
JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 

EATON AND MAINS 



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Copyright, 1912, 
By Jennings and Graham 



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^b6jmrb, ^S^tlltam, nnb Robert 



A BEGINNING WORD 

Thirteen thousand copies of these addresses 
were distributed over Central CaUfornia by the 
courtesy of the Fresno Morning Republican, 
Requests for their publication in book form 
have come from various sources, including lay- 
men engaged in active business, university 
students, and ministers of the gospel. Similar 
requests have come from members of the Los 
Angeles Methodist Preachers* Meeting, before 
whom three of the '* Addresses** were read as 
''A Paper,** in January, 1911. 

By way of illustration, a phrase of current 
slang expresses the attitude of many people 
to-day: **Any old thing** will do for a religious 
belief. "Dowieism,** "Tingleyism,** "Eddy- 
ism,** ''Spiritualism,*' or almost anything else 
seems good enough for multitudes of people. 
People are after the very best in everything 
except in Religion. When it comes to that, 
''Any old thing** will do. A nightmare dream, 
some wild and weird hallucination, or some age- 
old vagary from the dense darkness of long- 
forgotten ages — anything will do when it comes 

[5] 



to Religion. But with these same people, 
''Any old thing'* will not do when it comes to 
irrigation, architecture, agriculture, sanitation, 
and education. People who are so unintelligent 
and indiscriminate with regard to religion, are 
intelligent and discerning when it comes to 
other things. It is high time for a Reason- 
able Religion. The following addresses seek 
to show that the essential teachings of the 
Christian Religion are supremely reasonable. 
These addresses plead, as their general title 
indicates, for ''The Reasonable Religion.'' May 
they forward the cause of Him who said, 
"Come, let us reason together.'* 



[6] 



''Let us REASON together."— Isa. 1: 18. 

*'As he REASONED of righteousness."— Acts 24: 25. 

"A REASON of the hope that is in you."— 1 Pet. 3:15. 

''Your REASONABLE service."— Rom. 12: 1. 

"If you think strongly enough you will be forced by 
science to believe in God." — Lord Kelvin. 



CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

I. Experience and Explanation, - - - 11 

II. The Spirit of Christianity and the Spirit 

OF Science, ------ 18 

III. Who Is God? 26 

IV. The Voice Supreme, 36 

V. What Good Does Doubting Do ? - - - 44 

VI. The Bible's Challenge, - - - - 49 

VII. No Escape from the Supernatural, - - 57 

VIII. Miraculous Faculties, - - - - 66 

IX. Let Us Pray, 74 

X. The Christ Who Is God, - - - - 81 

XL Light Through the Cypress Trees, - - 89 

XII. Facing the Future, 97 



The Reasonable Religion 



Experience and Explanation 

If a man doubt, he ought to have a reason for 
his doubt. If a man beUeve, he ought to have a 
reason for his behef. Christianity does not 
bluff nor ''beg the question." On the simple 
basis of reason alone it would not be difficult 
to show to a fair mind that it is more reasonable 
to believe the great essentials of Christianity 
than it is to doubt them. Are not Christian 
convictions the most intelligent convictions for 
a fair-minded person to hold ? Are not the things 
that the Christian mind holds, reasonable things? 
Is it not really unreasonable not to believe 
them? Is it not perfectly reasonable to believe 
some things that lie beyond the reach of reason? 
He was a wise man who said, ''Conceivability 
is not the limit of credibility." Every day we 
are trusting experiences which nobody can ex- 

[11] 



plain. The great bulk of our living is more a 
matter of experience than it is of explanation. 
Something like that is what Kant meant when 
he said that ''The greatest truths are not 
thought out, but felt out.*' 

In the most of things we walk by faith more 
than we do by sight. Even Solomon, who was 
always emphasizing the importance of a good 
understanding, says, ''Trust in the Lord with 
all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own 
understanding/' He is trying to get us to see 
that the most intelligent thing we can do very 
often is to trust where we do not understand. 
And exactly this is what the common sense of 
mankind is doing every day. Take a few illus- 
trations, which will make this point perfectly 
plain : 

We trust nature every day where we do not 
understand. The sunlight is unexplainably 
mysterious. But nobody calls in question the 
propriety of trusting the sunlight. With all 
its mystery we accept its ministry. We are 
willing to experience the benefit of the sunlight, 
though we are unable to explain it. We trust 
in the sunlight, and lean not to our own un- 
derstanding. This is sanity and a practical 
necessity. 

Who has a satisfactory philosophy of fire? 
No scientist has found out the last secret, which 
belongs only to God. "Secret things belong to 
[12] 



God/' He reserves enough secrets from us all 
to keep us profitably puzzling forever. He is 
good enough and wise enough to hold back a 
plenty to keep forever alive the soul's sense of 
wonder. And with this sense of wonder he is 
always wooing us on to something more wonder- 
ful. We must trust the fire to warm us and to 
cook our food, though we do not understand it. 
With all its mystery, we accept its ministry. 
Its usefulness to us lies in our experience of it, 
and not in anybody's explanation of it. 

This line of illustration would hardly be 
complete without a reference to electricity. 
Nothing in all nature is quite so hard to under- 
stand. But we trust electricity to light our 
dwellings, to heal certain diseases, and to draw 
our cars across the city. What we ask is not 
so much an explanation of it, as that it shall be 
helpfully and experimentally related to our 
need. Even here, ''Conceivability is not the 
limit of credibility." We believe far beyond the 
point where we can understand. And in all of 
this we do wisely and well. 

Now, the credibility of these convictions 
about sunlight and fire and electricity is per- 
fectly plain. It would be impracticable not to 
believe these things simply because there is much 
about all of them that no man can understand. 
It is a mark of intelligence on our part to hold 
the practical convictions about them that we do, 
[13] 



even though no man can explain all the mysteries 
connected with them. Our practical convictions 
concerning these things in nature are reasonable 
convictions. It is more reasonable to believe 
the things we do about them than it would be 
not to believe them. Keep in mind that that 
is the great truth toward which we are headed 
concerning the ^'Credibility of Christian Con- 
victions.** 

Again, we trust Human Nature where we 
do not understand. If this were not true all 
practical human relationships would be im- 
practical, if not impossible. Mutual confidence 
is necessary to commercial transactions. Often 
a trade is consummated between two men 
involving thousands of dollars, and yet they 
have never seen each other. They have simply 
trusted each other enough to trade. 

I post my letter in California to a friend in 
New York, and go about my other duties 
without further care or concern about the letter. 
But an astonishing kind of confidence is involved 
in all of this, simple and commonplace as it 
may seem. Who can tell how many clerks, 
messengers, postmasters, engineers, and con- 
ductors — all absolutely unheard of by me and 
wholly unknown to me, that I have trusted 
with unquestioning confidence. This looks like 
a perfectly blind belief, but experience has con- 
vinced me that it is the most intelligent conduct 
fl4] 



of which I am capable concerning such mat- 
ters. And my faith is fully justified by the 
results. I am not so much in need of an expla- 
nation in these practical matters as I am of an 
experience. If the experience is satisfactory I 
can forego the explanation of the experience. 
Is not here an easy stepping-stone to the higher 
matters of the heart? In this case, as in many 
others, it is far wiser to have trusted before I 
understood than it would be to have waited to 
understand before I trusted. Of necessity, I 
must trust human nature far beyond the point 
where I can understand it. And in such matters 
no one calls in question the credibility of my 
convictions. 

My child is stretched upon the operating 
table. He is stupefied by an ethereal chemical 
substance to the point of sound slumber. The 
surgeon's knife cuts close and keen about the 
vital centers of my boy. To me it is all a 
bafifling mystery. I do not understand, but I do 
understand enough to trust him who does un- 
derstand. So Dr. Joseph Parker beautifully 
remarks that though Abraham went out ''not 
knowing whither he went, he did know with 
whom he went.'' 

Now, we have found that, as a rule, our 
convictions are credible with reference to Na- 
ture. We have found it not only necessary to 
trust Nature beyond the point where we could 
[15] 



understand, but we have found it practically 
profitable. We have found many things here 
that are experienceable, but not explainable. 

We have also confirmed the credibility of 
our convictions with reference to Human 
Nature. We have found it consistent to con- 
fide where we could not comprehend. In the 
most of our human relationships this has been 
the only intelligent procedure. These two steps 
have made us ready for the third step which 
will lift us above the foot-hills up to the high 
Sierras of the soul. 

We may intelligently trust the Supernat- 
ural every day where we do not understand. 
If I can trust a machinist who has made a great 
machine, why can I not trust a great Creator 
who has made a great creation? If I was not 
disappointed in trusting in the lower spheres 
where I could not understand, what reason 
have I to think that I shall be disappointed in 
trusting in the higher ranges of the heart, where 
I can not understand? I know that my soul 
feels sure of more truth than my mind under- 
stands. I know that I can experience far more 
than I can explain. In the lower spheres of 
life I know that the all-important thing has 
been the experience, and not the explanation. 
The facts of the forces with which I have 
had to deal have meant more to me than 
the philosophy of the forces. And I am ready 
[16] 



to sing with the songful poet this sweet song 
of faith: 

"I will not doubt, though all my ships at sea 

Come drifting home with broken masts and sails; 
I shall believe the Hand that never fails, 
From seeming evil worketh good for me; 
And though I weep because those sails are battered. 
Still will I cry, while my best hopes lie shattered — 
'I trust in Thee!' 

*' I will not doubt, though all my prayers return. 
Unanswered, from the still, white realm above; 
I shall believe it is an all-wise Love 
Which has refused those things for which I yearn; 
And though at times I can not keep from grieving, 
Yet the pure ardor of my fixed believing 
Undimmed shall burn. 

" I will not doubt, though sorrows fall like rain, 
And troubles swarm like bees about a hive; 
I shall believe the heights for which I strive 
Are only reached by anguish and by pain; 
And though I groan and tremble with my crosses, 
I yet shall see through my severest losses 
The greater gain. 

" I will not doubt; well anchored in the faith, 

Like some stanch ship, my soul braves every gale, 
So strong its courage that it will not fail 
To breast the mighty, unknown sea of death. 
Oh, may I cry when body parts with spirit, 
'I do not doubt!' so listening worlds may hear it, 
With my last breath!" 



[17] 



II 

The Spirit of Christianity and the 
Spirit of Science 

All truth is of God, and all lovers of God ought 
to be lovers of all truth. It was the greatest 
Teacher of truth who said, ''The truth shall 
make you free." Every great truth has had to 
fight for freedom. Of every great truth it may 
be said, ''This is that which came out of great 
tribulation." This is as true of Science as it is 
of Christianity. Every great truth in each has 
had to climb to its place of power through a 
baptism of blood. 

Let it be said here that there never has been 
any real conflict between the true spirit of 
Christianity and the true spirit of Science. 
Each has set its soul on the truth. There have 
been conflicts between theories held by Chris- 
tians and theories held by Scientists. But the 
theory of any truth and the truth of that theory 
are sometimes as wide apart as the poles. 
Theories of Christianity have often been at 
war with themselves, and it is well for the truth 
[18] 



of Christianity that they were. Science has 
had to shift its theoretic *' Feelers" for the facts 
a thousand times. Prejudices on both sides 
have often joined in combat. The conflict has 
been between the methods and theories for 
finding the truth. One said it was in the foot- 
hills, and the other that it was in ''the high 
Alps." One said it was here, and the other said 
it was there, but the real Christian and the 
real Scientist has set his soul on finding ''the 
real thing." When that is found both are 
satisfied. Nothing short of that will quench 
the fever for the facts. "Blessed are they that 
hunger and thirst," is the principle that applies 
to every honest seeker after truth. And this is 
the spirit of Christianity. It is also the spirit 
of Science. 

This short study is to show the kinship 
between the real Spirit of real Christianity and 
the real Spirit of real Science. As to origin, 
scope, and career, there is no claim of equality. 
The contention here is that the Spirit of 
Christianity and the Spirit of Science are close 
of kin. 

One tendency of the last twenty-five years 
in particular has been to over-intellectualize 
everything. Now, a close look into facts and 
conditions will show that this tendency is 
not superlatively and symmetrically intelligent. 
Men do not reach supreme intelligence by 
[19] 



exclusive mental measurements. There is the 
poetic feeling which finds its way to the truth 
as swiftly as a sunbeam finds a flower. There 
is the instinctive search which swiftly and 
surely finds the goal. Mere mechanical mental 
processes are painful and plodding. What I 
plead for is the intelligent recognition of the 
higher ranges of revelation. What the age needs 
is to find its way beyond the mere intellectual 
fact to the great spiritual truth toward which 
the fact points. 

The highest intelligence always takes note 
of the fact that there is somewhat infinitely 
worth while beyond the reach of mere mentality. 
The mockingbird can not explain its music. 
It does not know music by explanation, but by 
experience. So we may know a lot of things 
by the heart that we can never know by the 
head. Let us hunt the truth by running out on 
every highway — the Intellect, the Sensibility, 
the Will, and natural Instinct. But let us know 
that mere mentality is not the only way that 
we reach truth or that truth reaches us. Truth 
may reach us and we may reach truth by the 
activities of the will. (''He that doeth My will 
shall know. ") We may reach the truth and the 
truth may reach us by instinct, intuition, im- 
agination, and poetic feeling. A great artist's 
suggestion concerning the work of a student 
was in one word, '^Amplius" — wider. That is 

[20] 



what we all need to-day in our ways of search- 
ing for the truth. We need to search for truth 
in the spheres of the will, in the rhythmic realms 
of emotion, in the floral fields of imagination, 
and get as much by purely intellectual processes 
as possible. This is not a plea for the disuse 
of any faculty, but for the full use of all. 

The Spirit of Christianity and the Spirit of 
Science are constructive. They came not to 
destroy, but to fulfill. Neither can be consistent 
and not seek for some Creator back of every 
creature. An uncreated creature is unthinkable 
to them both. Edison said that he wanted to 
take as many things as he could apart and put 
them together again. There is the spirit of 
your true scientist — the taking things apart is 
only a way of finding out how to put them 
together again. And the Founder of Chris- 
tianity said, '*I came not to destroy, but to 
fulfill." 

The Spirit of Christianity and the Spirit of 
Science both recognize the necessity and min- 
istry of mystery. The balanced mind must 
recognize the law of limitation everywhere. 
There is only one absolute Infinite. There can 
not be two. Paul stated a great scientific as 
well as Christian truth when he said, ''We 
know in part." Every Geologist will say that 
about the rocks. Every Botanist will say that 
about the flowers. Every Astronomer will say 
[21] 



that about the stars. And if the Scientist must 
say it about the stars, may not Christian Paul 
say it about the Soul? If Science must say it 
about the lesser spheres, may not Christianity 
say it about the largest spheres? 

No fair mind would condemn a lantern be- 
cause it did not flash its light at once to the end 
of the journey. It shows clearly here and now 
a part of the pathway. That is service to be 
appreciated. We thank Proctor for giving us 
some secrets about the stars. We thank Paul 
for giving us some secrets about the soul. 

When I see so many patches of blue between 
rifted clouds, I conclude that beyond the 
clouds there must be a whole sky of blue. My 
soul feels the truth that there is more to be seen 
than it sees. Tennyson was wont to say that 
Love was as real to him as a brick. Lowell felt 
the truth of the unseen when he said, *' Behind 
the dim unknown standeth God within the 
shadow, keeping watch above His own.'* 

The close kinship of Christianity and Science 
is shown by the similarity of their interpreta- 
tion of Providence. That any intelligent creator 
of any worthy thing should be interested in his 
creation, is a self-evident proposition. Science 
is pleased to call the doings of the Creator and 
the methods of His creation '^the ways of na- 
ture.'' Science says, Nature does thus and so. 
Christianity means what Science means, only 
[22] 



Christianity means more than Science means. 
Science teaches that a watch is the product of 
a watch-maker. Christianity teaches that a 
world is the product of a World-Maker. Here 
the attitude of the Christian toward the world 
and its Maker is precisely that of the Scientist 
toward the watch and its maker. The Science 
of Mathematics has its roots in a mathematical 
mind. Man has not made mathematics. He 
has only made the discovery of mathematics. 
When he finds a book full of mathematical 
figures he knows that some mathematical mind 
made the book and the figures. The Christian 
finds the Nature Book full of segments, circles, 
lines, angles, and proportions. He knows that 
some mathematical Mind has made this material 
nature book. The snowfiake is constructed with 
perfect geometrical precision. Water freezes 
geometrically. When a block of wood or a 
piece of iron is carved into geometrical propor- 
tions. Science says it was done by a mathematical 
mind. And Science is right. When frost forms 
geometrically in lines and angles on the window 
pane, Christianity says it was done by a math- 
ematical Mind. And Christianity is right. 
Science and Christianity are both right. They 
see the same truth, but they do not always 
give the same name to the same truth. 

If the Scientist were exploring a new country 
and should find telegraph wires stretched across 
[23] 



it he would say, ''Some workman has been 
here." When the scientific Christian explores 
the human body and finds nerve wires stretched 
through every portion of it, he says, ''Some 
Workman has been here." The evidence in 
each case is unescapable by any process of sane 
thinking. The scientific mind discovering a 
glass eye in a man's head, is sure there must be 
a maker of glass eyes somewhere. The Chris- 
tian, with equal accuracy, finding a natural eye 
in a man's head, is sure there must be a Maker 
of natural eyes somewhere. Here Christianity 
and Science are both right again, and there is 
no conflict between them. 

The difference between the Spirit of real 
Science and the Spirit of real Christianity is in 
form and not in fact. Science calls the work- 
man Nature. Christianity calls Him God. 

Christianity is perfectly scientific when it 
teaches that God is interested in the smallest 
things. "His eye is on the sparrow, and I 
know He cares for me." The microscope shows 
as much beauty in the algse on a country pond 
as there is in a landscape garden. No earthly 
gardener could make that beautiful algse. Its 
beauty is proof positive of a Beautifier. "God, 
the perfection of beauty hath shined." The 
microscope shows His beauty in the moss. The 
telescope shows His beauty in the stars. The 
eye of a fly is as wondrously constructed as St. 
[24] 



Paul's Cathedral. If the Cathedral was made 
by an architect, the eye of the fly was made by 
an Oculist. 

Christianity is scientific in saying that God 
has ways of bringing about results that are not 
dreamed of in men's philosophies. Human 
workmen are building the Panama Canal. Who 
built the canal of the Amazon? Human work- 
men built the dikes of Holland. What work- 
man threw up against the sky the dikes of the 
Rockies and the Sierras? Science says that 
Nature heaved these dizzy dikes. Christianity 
says God did it through Nature. 

Lately Science has heard the call of Chris- 
tianity and is turning its search upon the soul. 
This is well. But let Science be as fair in search- 
ing the soul as she is in searching the stars. 
Let her be sure that there is something worth 
while beyond what she sees and knows. In 
both spheres, and especially in the soul, there 
is always a larger truth than the one she sees. 
The credibility of Scientific convictions is not 
invalidated by necessary mental limitations. 
The same is true of the ''CredibiHty of Christian 
Convictions." 



[25] 



Ill 
Who Is God? 

As A religious influence some sort of conviction 
concerning God is well nigh, if not quite, uni- 
versal among men. Such conviction existed 
centuries before there could be any world con- 
clave to agree upon such conviction. The con- 
viction has expressed itself from the crudest 
signs to the finest forms of silken speech. Just 
as a man is a very different creation from the 
clothes he wears, so is every conviction differ- 
ent from the form that gives it expression. 

In the world-wide light of truth to-day we 
can plainly see certain distorted convictions 
concerning God. Some earnest and sincere 
people have held these convictions to their 
hurt. It is plain that any great truth and a 
mere theory concerning that truth may be 
separated by vast differences. 

In this study we are to examine in a plain 

and practical way some of the leading distorted 

convictions that have been held concerning God. 

And we are to see the incredibility of these erro- 

[26] 



neous convictions. The weariness of the world 
has outworn them because they did not give the 
world's weariness rest. The world's wickedness 
turns away from these distorted notions about 
God because they do not show the way to 
righteousness. Mankind's sorrow sobs on in its 
dirge of doubt because these false ideas about 
God hold up no single torch of hope for its dark- 
ness and despair. The attritions of trouble soon 
wear out that which gives neither help nor hope. 
Service to the soul is the supreme test of the 
greatest truth. 

Some true idea of the truth is always pos- 
sible. So the true idea of the true God is pos- 
sible. Above and beyond all the names of God 
is the fact of God. Beyond every symbol is the 
supreme and original reality. That is who God 
is, the supreme and absolutely real person. 
God is the supreme source. It will help us to 
find the credible convictions concerning God 
by examining a few of the incredible convic- 
tions concerning Him. These false convictions 
have spoilt many a soul and have played havoc 
with many a heart. 

There is the irrational idea of A Tyrannical 
God. He is a despot. He rules to ruin and He 
ruins to rule. Not kindness but cruelty is His 
chief characteristic. The idea is easily trace- 
able to the darkest days of the unchristian 
world. Such an idea was never hinted in the 

[27] 



teachings of Christ. It is nowhere to be found 
in the Bible. If any Christian minds ever held 
such an idea the Christian mind of to-day is 
sure that such an idea was never Christian. 
It is now a matter of sincere regret throughout 
the most intelligent part of the Christian world 
that such an idea ever grew like a noxious weed 
among the fragrant flowers of Christian truth. 
It is an unbelievable and unpreachable idea con- 
cerning God. 

Then there is the narrow and distorted idea 
of a Sectarian God. Some who hold this 
notion seem to think that God is pleased be- 
cause of the mere fact that they belong to one 
Denomination rather than to another. Many 
such are sincere, but they forget that it is the 
quality of a man's character, rather than his 
theoretical creed, that pleases or displeases God. 
''Man looketh on the outward appearance, but 
the Lord looketh on the heart.'' They forget 
that the Christian's God is everybody's God 
who will love Him and trust Him. He can not 
be confined by any creed. He goes far afield to 
find the lost. He finds love in many a barren 
land. He is out in the world's wilderness say- 
ing, and ever saying, '* Whosoever will may 
come.'' He is no sectarian God. He is the 
whole world's God to succor and to save. 

Another false idea of God is that He is an 
Indiscriminate God. He generalizes His good- 
[28] 



ness into something in general, but nothing in 
particular. According to this theory, the good 
and the bad are both much alike to Him, and 
there will be little, if any, difference in their 
destinies. They believe that the wretched 
assassins of Lincoln, McKinley, and Garfield 
will arrive at last at the same glad goal as that 
of their great, good victims. This idea of an 
indiscriminate God misses the pivotal point 
in the whole human drama. People who hold 
this theory do not seem to see that at their 
own door human society, with all its foibles 
and limitations, will not allow even here and 
now the good man and the bad man to have the 
same social destiny. Would not this common 
conscience of mankind allot the good and the 
bad to different destinies hereafter? If we 
justify the human mind in this social distinction 
here, must we not also justify in our truest 
thinking the Divine Mind in a corresponding 
spiritual distinction hereafter? This is one of 
the vital points in the human drama that 
this theory of an indiscriminate God entirely 
misses. 

But you say, ''The darkness and the light 
are both alike to God." That is a true and beau- 
tiful way of saying that God is the master of 
the night as well as the day. Nobody doubts 
that. But that fine phrase does not say that 
right and wrong are alike to God. No, they 
[29] 



are not alike even to you and to me, much less 
to the great good God. Even you would not 
let a cobra in among your little children as 
readily as you would a dove. And are we to 
reckon that God, the infinite-minded, will in- 
discriminately mix assassins and saints in the 
life that is to come? Goodness gravitates to its 
goal as surely as Newton's falling apple. Is it 
not truthfully and sadly said of Judas that 
" He went to his own place? '' He was not driven 
by any scourging whip — he went. 

God is not a Tyrant. He is not a Sectarian 
God. And He is not an Indiscriminate God. 
To intelligence these notions about God are 
becoming more and more unthinkable. These 
theories are found to be false when measured 
by humanity's common sense of fairness. They 
are found to be false when measured by the 
consensus of the largest human intelligences. 
They are all found to be false in the searching 
light of the Bible. 

Now, how far have we come in our reckon- 
ing? We have found at least three convictions 
about God which are now considered incredible. 
We have found at least three trails which do 
not lead to the truth about God. Having found 
this much, let us search for ''the true and living 
way.'* Let us look at some credible Christian 
convictions concerning God. 

Christianity holds the conviction that God 
[30] 



is a Person. It is wholly ungrammatical as well 
as irrational to speak of Him as ''It." Nobody 
claiming sanity would say that a clock came by 
chance. Who would dare to say that the 
seasonal clock-work of the universe came by 
chance? The seasons are as timely as the move- 
ments of a clock. It is unthinkable that a clock 
should not have a person of mechanical intelli- 
gence back of its machinery. Then must not 
some Supreme Personal Sanity direct the 
Seasons? 

The three things that chiefly characterize a 
Person are ideas, feelings, and actions. Your 
Psychologist would say that they are ^'intellect, 
sensibility, and will." These three things are 
traceable through all the works of men. 

Every great musical composition shows the 
composer to have been possessed of ideas, feel- 
ings, and actions. The painter puts undoubt- 
able proof of these three things into his pictures. 
In this illustrative particular, let Music and 
Painting stand for the workmanship of men. 

Ideas, feelings, and actions run through all 
the personal products of men. What Beethoven 
thought and felt and did are all in his ''Sym- 
phonies." What Angelo thought and felt and 
did are all in his "Last Judgment." 

But Nature is full of music that no man 
made or could make. The violinist stretches 
the chords of his violin to just such a tension 

[31] 



before he can draw forth the music that he 
wants. But who stretched those marvelous 
musical chords in the mockingbird's throat? 
No man did that. But some person did. Who? 
Is not the Christian answer the only reasonable 
one? It is simple, sensible, straightforward. 
Christianity says that God stretched the chords 
in the mockingbird's throat. Let him disprove 
it who can. 

You say the Painter puts the color in his 
pictures. Certainly. That is a credible account 
as to how the color came there. But here is a 
flower garden. It is full of roses, lilies, daisies, 
violets, galardias, poppies, and poinsettias, and 
many other flowers. Color came into these 
flowers somehow. Who put the color into the 
picture we were considering a moment ago? 
Ah, yes; the Painter. Who put the color into 
these flowers? Who but the flower Maker? 
And His name is God. Is any other rational 
answer possible, either about the color in the 
picture or the color in the flower? 

We are tracing here a great truth. That 
truth is that there are two classes of made 
things. In a sense one class of things man 
made. But who made the other class of things 
which no man made or could make? Somebody 
other than man, that is God. 

If the book on Astronomy which tells about 
the stars must have a maker, must not the 
[32] 



stars themselves have a Maker? If the book 
on flowers must be the product of a person, 
how were the flowers themselves produced? If 
the lesser thing must have a creator, must not 
the greatest thing also have a Creator? If 
every creation must be the product of a creator, 
must not every created person be the product 
of a Personal Creator? The Christian convic- 
tion about God is that He is a person. Is not 
this a credible conviction? Is it not a thou- 
sand-fold more believable than doubtable? 
Even so. 

It is a Christian conviction about God that 
He is infinitely wise. He is the source of all 
truth. He is the source of all true inspirations. 
In the presence of great problems and great 
enterprises we feel safe in the hands of great 
wisdom. We have reason to fear when values 
of any kind are entrusted to a foolish person. 
But in the hands of wisdom we are unafraid. 
A little lad I knew went fearlessly through a 
dark forest at night when owls hooted and winds 
moaned, because his father, who knew the way, 
held his hand. Are we not all like that little 
lad? Nothing will drive away the fevered 
fears of life like calm confidence in the All-wise 
Father. The Christian thinking of to-day is 
more and more centering around the great 
truth of God's Fatherhood. It is fatal to all 
fears to have serene confidence in the All-wise 
3 [33] 



Father. It is always the supreme act of the 
hirjhest human inteUigence, when it does not 
know, to trust Him who does know. 

The fitting of means to ends is always a 
mark of wisdom. As the wisdom of a machinist 
is traceable through every part of a great ma- 
chine, so the wisdom of the Creator is traceable 
through every part of His creation. All the 
wise words that men have spoken about the 
works of nature have been drawn from the 
wisdom of God that runs like a thread of Gold 
through a piece of skillfully woven cloth. Men 
have put the wisdom into their nature books 
because God put it first into His Book of Nature. 
^'The firmament showeth His handiwork.'' The 
credible Christian conviction about God is that 
He is a Person who is infinitely wise. 

That He is an All-powerful Person is another 
Christian conviction about God. If power is 
put out it must be the output of some power. 
There is power which works in the wisest ways 
that is plainly not of men. Whence comes the 
wind's power, the water's power, the earth- 
quake's power, and a thousand other forms of 
power? It is the output of an Almighty Per- 
sonality. ''The Thunder of His power who can 
understand?" 

Another Christian Conviction is that ''God 
is love," and infinitely good. It is the convic- 
tion of mankind that there must be a supreme 
[34] 



Goodness somewhere. This Is certainly the 
Christian conviction. And are not these Chris- 
tian convictions about God credible? If we 
turn away from these convictions, to what shall 
we turn? 



[35] 



IV 
The Voice Supreme 

If God is All-wise, All-powerful, and All- 
good, as we have seen in a previous study, then 
He can speak to man if He will, and He will 
speak to man if He can. It is the nature of 
mind to communicate with mind. That natural 
impulse is back of all spoken and written 
language. In that natural impulse to speak 
lies the origin of all language. The greater the 
personal intelligence, the personal power, and 
the personal love, the more urgent is this im- 
pulse, and, as Ralph Waldo Emerson would 
say, this ''Appulse'' to speak. 

It is unthinkable that an infinite Creator 
should not in some manner speak some word to 
His most intelligent creature on earth. It is 
more reasonable to believe that He does than 
it is to believe that He does not. At the very 
root of all educational processes and that which 
makes human education possible is this speak- 
ing down of the higher mind to the lower mind. 
This is the way the superior minds of science, 
[36] 



philosophy, history, and literature lift up and 
educate the race. This principle of teaching 
reaches back and up to the infinite Mind which 
speaks down to the human mind. That is just 
what the highest human intelligence would 
expect. Does not this statement meet that 
expectation? ^*God, who at sundry times and 
in divers manners spake in time past unto the 
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days 
spoken unto us by His Son.'' Surely supreme 
intelligence must speak somehow, sometime. 

Every great conviction and every great 
human cause has its voice. Music, art, liter- 
ature, science, philosophy, invention, discovery, 
religion — each has only a few great voices that 
speak above the clamor of the crowd. 

Luther spoke for Protestantism. Lincoln 
spoke for Liberty. Moses and David spoke for 
the highest in Judaism. Jesus and Paul spoke 
for Christianity. All of these were spokesmen 
for God and for the soul of man. 

It would be interesting to notice here the 
inner voice, ''the still small voice." There is 
such a voice, and Christianity calls that voice 
God's voice. Some poet has put the truth in 
song : 

"I heard a voice; it spoke unto my will; 

A voice which gives my heart sweet joy and peace, 
A voice from which I never ask release, 
A silent voice — I hear it ever still. 

[37] 



" It called me from the land of fear and doubt; 
It bid me to forsake the base, and feel 
The impulse of the pure and true and real; 
It led the way when all was dark without. 

*' Where'er I go that voice remains my guest; 
Still I am but a follower of Him 
Who bids me through the voice which speaks within, 
To labor well and then in peace to rest." 

God has three great books. There is the 
book of Nature, the book of Human Nature, 
and the book of the Supernatural. A careful 
study of the first two books will help us to un- 
derstand the third. God speaks in each of these 
books, but we must be fair and impartial or we 
shall miss His meaning. 

Let us take up first the book of Nature. 
This ought to be an easy book to begin with, 
because it is right at hand. We have been 
scanning the pages of this book ever since we 
were born. Surely we ought to know something 
about it by this time. But how much do we 
actually know? Do we find any mysteries in 
this book? If we do find any mysteries in this 
book, do we on that account deny its truth and 
genuineness? We must consider those two 
questions together all through this study. We 
are too sensible to reject the contents of the 
book of Nature simply because we find mystery 
there. This book of Nature, in large and easy 
outlines, has four parts. 
[38] 



There is the part which treats of Minerals. 
Do we find any mysteries here? Yes, but we 
need to keep in mind that we find satisfactory 
ministries here in spite of the mysteries. Here 
are gems, pearls, diamonds, and precious stones 
innumerable. Some of these stones are made 
from wood. They are commonly called ''Petri- 
fied wood.'' There is a great natural factory in 
Arizona where such stones are made. No man's 
eye has ever seen the factory's foreman. There 
is no sound of flying belts and whirling wheels. 
No thud of hammer nor clip of chisel breaks the 
stillness day nor night. Are all these processes 
of making beautiful stones from an old dead 
tree perfectly plain? Is there anything mys- 
terious about moss agate? What about the 
topaz, the bloodstone, the moonstone? Has any 
lapidary explained the make and mystery of 
the scintillating diamond? We accept the 
truth of structure, beauty, and utility in all of 
these. We do not permit the mystery they hold 
for us to prevent their ministry to us. 

In this book of Nature there is the second 
part, which treats of Vegetables. Here are 
flavors that delight the taste and beauties that 
charm the eye. Any mysteries here? Why is 
one rose white, another red, another yellow, and 
all in the same air, the same soil, the same sun- 
shine. How does the turnip have one flavor, 
the peach another, the plum another, the lemon 
[39] 



another, the orange another, and the cherry 
still another, and all in the same air, the same 
soil, the same sunshine? There are many guesses, 
but who knows? Even here is there riot some 
real sense in which ''Secret things belong to 
God?'' We never think of objecting to the 
beauty and fragrance and flavor and nourish- 
ment simply on account of the mystery we 
find in these things. The test in all of these 
things is not in explaining them, but in experi- 
encing them. 

Now we might look at the next part in this 
book of Nature, which treats of Electricity. 
The very word, electricity, is almost a synonym 
for mystery. There is the telegraph, the tele- 
phone, the megaphone, the graphophone, wire- 
less telegraphy, and many other electrical con- 
trivances. We are utterly baffled here with 
multitudinous mysteries. Still we are sane 
enough to accept their ministries in spite of 
their mysteries. Here again it is not a matter 
of explanation, but a matter of experience. 
We may have the explanation, but we must 
have the experience. And we feel, and feel in- 
telligently, that we must have these electrical 
experiences whether anybody can explain them 
or not. 

Still another part in this book of Nature 
treats of Animals. In recent years we have 
been reading authentic accounts of photographs 
[40] 



made by using the lens from the eye of an ox. 
Any mystery in that? South American butter- 
flies have caught all the glory of the rainbow in 
their wings. In the cabinet of a great Univer- 
sity I have seen the lunar moths which might 
well awaken the wonder of an angel. It took 
the ingeniousness of God to make them. No 
wonder they puzzle the scientist. The snake 
changes his skin with as much care as a lady 
does her dress. Who makes our silk? A little 
worm. No wonder we '* worms of the dust" 
are so fond of wearing it. Did you ever hear of 
anybody objecting to using silk on account 
of the mystery connected with its making? 
Silk is a matter of experience and not a matter 
of explanation. I have seen a sunfish in a 
prairie pond guarding off the enemy from the 
spawn with all the bravery and skill of a human 
soldier on picket duty. Who gathers all our 
honey? A little insect. But we do not object 
to the honey on account of the mystery con- 
nected with its making. My conclusion is that 
this book of Nature is vastly useful and help- 
ful, though there are many things in it w^hich 
are hard to be understood. 

Next we are to look into the book of Human 
Nature. It has three parts. One on the Body, 
another on the Mind, and another on the Soul. 
How does thought affect the brain? How does 
the brain affect the thinking? Who can trace 
[41] 



the subtle processes of thinking? But we trust 
these processes every day as rehable and gen- 
uine, in spite of their mystery. Here again we 
may have the explanation, but we must have 
the experience. 

The next part in this book of Human Nature 
'rreats of Emotions. Why does martial music 
create in us the battle mood? Why does the 
sight of an old faded photograph of mother 
touch us to tears? Who has measured the gulfs 
of human grief? Who can measure the storms 
of human passion? Yet this realm of emotion 
holds the sweetest things of the heart. The 
chapter on love in this book of Human Nature 
is lyric with all the sweetest music of man- 
kind. No matter how much the mystery, we 
can never forego the ministry of love. O, my 
heart, it is the experience and not the expla- 
nation that sets my sobbing lips to singing. 

One more part in this book of Human 
Nature treats of the Will. This power is the 
executive of the human machinery of the world. 
Back of the engine's power is the greater power 
of the engineer's will. Everybody is glad to 
accept the ministries of the human will. No- 
body can explain the mysterious movements of 
the human will. The same great truth which 
has met us so often before, meets us here again. 
Through all this great book of Human Nature 
it is a matter of practical personal experience, 
[42] 



and not a matter of philosophical explanation. 
We must experience. We will explain, if we can. 
In closing this study we are to look into our 
Supernatural Book. It is unscholarly and 
even foolish to put this book in the same class 
with the pagan bibles of the world. It can not 
be thus classed as to its origin, contents, char- 
acteristics, or its inspiring effects on the mind 
of mankind. Max Miiller, the scientific expert 
in the comparative study of the world's re- 
ligions, deliberately declared himself as follows: 
'* Readers who have been led to believe that the 
Vedas of the ancient Brahmins, the Avesta of 
the Zoroastrians, the Tripitaka of the Bud- 
dhists, the Kings of Confucius, or the Koran 
of Mohammed are books full of primeval wis- 
dom and religious enthusiasm, or at least of 
sound and simple moral teaching, will be dis- 
appointed on consulting these volumes.'' Again 
this great expert says, ''They contain so much 
that is not only unmeaning, artificial, and silly, 
but even hideous and repellant.'' That is what 
experts have found out about the so-called 
"Sacred Books of the East.'' These books are 
outranked by the Bible as a dewdrop is out- 
ranked by the sea. This will appear further as 
we look more into the subject. It will specially 
appear as we examine the Bible's characteristics 
and its challenge to the intellect of the centuries, 
a little later on in these studies. 
[43] 



V 
What Good Does Doubting Do? 

Let us consider a few points concerning the 
doubter and the Bible. Did doubting the Bible 
ever do anybody any good? Did doubting the 
Bible ever do a community any good? Did it 
ever do a nation any good? Let it be remem- 
bered that intelligent, honest inquiry is not 
doubt. Of all books, the Bible is the Book that 
courts inquiry. It says, ^*0, taste and see." 
That is one way of saying test and see. The 
Bible says, ''Come, now, let us reason to- 
gether.'' In the New Testament the appeal is 
made for '*a reasonable service.*' In another 
place in the New Testament it is urged that 
the Christian be ready to **give a reason for 
the hope that is in him." 

The Bible is a reasonable Book. Any just 
person ought to be very slow in pronouncing 
against anything which he has not carefully 
examined. Have you not noticed that the people 
who have examined the Bible most are always 
the slowest to pronounce against it and the 
quickest to pronounce for it? Does any objector 
to the Bible know that every single figure of 
[44] 



speech in the Book of Isaiah where nature is 
referred to is in perfect harmony with the fact 
as it is found in nature? This is a simple mat- 
ter in the literature of the Bible which anybody 
can see for himself; but you can not find with- 
out hunting, and you can not see without look- 
ing. If the verbal form of Isaiah^s message is 
absolutely correct and every reference to 
nature perfectly accurate, is it not reasonable 
to believe that the substance of that message 
is correct also? 

Any honest man may find these facts for 
himself. The field to the facts is open. Here, 
as elsewhere, the searchers are the finders. 
But if a man doubt a fact in the material world, 
is it not apt to have some material effect upon 
him? If a man doubt a fact in the mental 
world, will it not have some mental effect upon 
him? So if a man doubt a fact in the spiritual 
sphere, will it not have some spiritual effect 
upon him? Here we ask again, What practical 
effect does your doubting the Bible have on 
your every-day living experience? Does it 
give you comfort in sorrows to doubt the 
Bible? Does doubting the Bible give you 
strength to master your temptations? Does 
doubting the Bible help to clear the skies of 
your hope? Does doubting the Bible scatter 
the clouds of your despair? Certainly unbelief 
on the great points of God and His Word does 
[45] 



not help anybody in any way. The pivotal 
point here is that a man's personal every-day 
experiences are closely connected with his 
belief or disbelief concerning God and the 
Bible. Is it not more important that we have 
a satisfactory experience concerning God and 
the Bible, than it is that we have a satisfactory 
explanation of that experience? 

The doubter's method misses many of the 
most important points in this whole investiga- 
tion. Has he noticed that the happiest com- 
munities are always where the Bible's influence 
is greatest? Anybody may scoff. Somebody 
has scoffed at every invention and at every 
great discovery, but his scoffing has not been 
justified. The scoffer scoffed at Washington, 
Lincoln, and Edison. All great leaders have 
been scoffed at by the scoffers. The Bible says, 
*'Come and see,'' but the scoffer will not look. 
The Bible says, ''Listen," but the scoffer will not 
hear. The Bible says, ''Try me and see," but 
the scoffer will not try it. The Bible says 
"Come, let us reason," but the scoffer is un- 
reasonable. 

Another mistake is made by the doubter. 
He looks with suspicion on anything that he 
can not explain. He forgets that the truth of 
anything does not at all depend on whether he 
can understand it or explain it. The principle 
of mathematics which he understands now is 
[46] 



not any truer because he understands it than it 
was before he understood it, and every prin- 
ciple of mathematics which he does not under- 
stand and can not explain, is just as true as if 
he did understand it and could explain it. 

The whole attitude of the doubter is a mis- 
taken one. He is looking into a black space 
in the sky into which no shining star will ever 
swim. There is your doubter's principal trouble. 
He looks chiefly at dark spots and negatives. 
This will never completely explain anything. 
But when he can not explain, he refuses to 
believe. I would rather believe everybody and 
be fooled, than to believe nobody and be a fool. 
I would rather follow a reasonable trust, than to 
blunder along after an untrustworthy reason. 

There^is a rational trust and this may be 
sometimes true where there is no rational un- 
derstanding. I trust the teacher because I do 
not understand the lesson. I trust the guide 
in the mountains because I do not know the 
trail. I trust the engineer and the conductor 
because I can not manage the engine nor the 
train. Many things may be genuine and trust- 
worthy far beyond the little point where my 
reason stops. I have seen the skylark soar 
away to the sky. When he dived into the upper 
blue out of my sight, I knew he must still be 
there. The greatest truths about life, and love, 
and God are all like that. They are so agile of 

[ 47 ] 



wing and their sky sphere is so vast that they 
fly up and away beyond my sight. There is 
always a larger truth about God and His deal- 
ings with us than the one truth we see. The 
largest truths lie just beyond our mortal sight. 

Another point which it is very important to 
remember is that there are various kinds or 
classes of truth. Every kind of truth has some 
kind of test to match it. There is physical 
truth; there is intellectual truth; there is spir- 
itual truth. You test music by musical tests; 
you test chemicals by chemical tests; you test 
flowers and plants by botanical tests. All this 
is fair and reasonable, and it is a sure way to 
find out the truth about all of these things. 

But you can not find out the truth about 
the Bible by putting it into a chemical solution ; 
you can not find out the truth about the Bible 
by looking at it through a telescope. You can 
test a star that way, but you can not test the 
Scriptures that way. You can find out the truth 
about a man's height by a measuring stick. 
You can find out the weight of his body by a 
weighing machine, but you can not find out the 
truth about his soul by that kind of test. All 
the different kinds of truth have their proper 
and appropriate tests. All this is said to re- 
mind us that there are certain proper tests for 
the Bible. Let the doubter be fair in his tests 
of the Bible. 

[48] 



VI 

The Bible's Challenge 

The Bible challenges the intellect of the cen- 
turies by its origin. Holy men of God spoke 
as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. They 
were inspired to write history, prophecy, poetry, 
epistles. This is affirmed on well authenticated 
facts. Here is an open field and a fair fight. 
I declare boldly on the statement of the Bible 
itself that it originated with the Spirit of God, 
who spoke to and through the spirits of men. 
If this claim can not be disproved by undoubt- 
able facts, then in the estimation of fair minds 
it must stand. The Bible inspires in men the 
same spirit which we would expect it to inspire 
had it originated with God. And this is the 
claim with which we start this study. 

The unity of the Bible challenges the in- 
tellect of the centuries. There is not a word in 
the book of Revelations which might not have 
consistently proceeded from the writer of 
Genesis, so far as the spirit of truth is con- 
cerned. Moses nowhere contradicts the man of 
Patmos. Isaiah and Paul in every essential 
4 [49] 



point substantially agree. The teaching of the 
first Psalm and the Sermon on the Mount are 
in perfect harmony. The Decalogue and the 
Golden Rule walk down the ages hand in hand. 
Here are sixty-five books bound in one book 
called the Bible. They were written in three 
different languages. They were written by 
forty different authors. The period of their 
composition spanned a space of fifteen hundred 
years. But many of these writers were of ne- 
cessity total strangers to the others. Yet the 
man who writes a thousand years from the time 
the other one writes, agrees with him perfectly. 
Why not apply the principles of intelligence 
here to account for this unity that we would 
apply elsewhere? What if I were a telegraph 
operator and I should receive sixty-five mes- 
sages from about fifty different men, some from 
the north, some from the south, some from the 
east, some from the west, but every one con- 
taining the thoughts and ideas of the presi- 
dential ''Thanksgiving proclamation?'* I would 
reasonably conclude that the presidential mind 
was the author of these sixty-five proclamations. 
Well, when I find that the ideas and thoughts 
of these sixty-five books of the Bible substan- 
tially agree as to sin, salvation, and human 
destiny, I conclude that they all proceed from 
the mind of God. That is fair reasoning else- 
where. It is fair reasoning here. 

[501 



The complete candor of the Bible challenges 
the intellect of the centuries. When it takes 
up the discussion of any character, it tells the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 
truth about that character. It does not **beg 
the question/' It is not evasive. It goes 
straight to the heart of the truth. The Bible 
flashes the facts right into the reader's face. 
It tells the whole truth about Moses, David, 
Peter, Paul. It says Moses killed a man and 
hid him in the sand. It says David was guilty 
of double crime. It says Peter denied his 
Lord. It says Paul was once a persecutor of 
Christianity and was *^exceeding m?^d'' against 
Christians. It tells the worst. It tells the best. 

The vitality of the Bible challenges the in- 
tellect of the centuries. In South America 
some of the most beautiful flowers bloom best 
after a storm sweeps over them. That is what 
the Bible has been doing for these long cen- 
turies. Voltaire tried to kill it. Tom Paine 
tried to kill it. Hume tried to kill it. Inger- 
soll tried to kill it. But the effect of all these 
infidel efforts was like the effect of a big bel- 
lows blowing its breath into a furnace of coals. 
It has been torn to pieces page by page. It 
has been cut to pieces with knives. Its pages 
have been burnt to ashes. 

But the presses teem with tens of thousands 
more copies of this Book than ever before in 
[51] 



the history of humanity. You can kill a myth. 
You can kill a fable. Ralph Waldo Emerson 
said that few books live to be more than a year 
old. For thousands of books that were ''the 
best sellers*' ten and fifteen years ago, there is 
no demand at all now. They are a drug on the 
market. They are dead. They did not die of 
cerebral paralysis. They did not have enough 
cerebral matter in them to paralyze. They did 
not die of heart-failure, for there was not enough 
heart in them to fail. But the Bible is a book 
whose unquenchable vitality amazes mankind. 
Such vitality challenges the intellect of the 
centuries. 

The influence of the Bible on mankind 
challenges the intellect of the centuries. This 
is a very practical test of its divineness. What 
kind of influence does the Bible have on men? 
Test it by its fruit. That is fair. One single 
phase of the Bible's influence is the growing 
wonder of the world. The missionary is the 
pioneer in the greatest forward movements of 
mankind. And his magic wand is the message 
of the Bible. Any man who really wants to 
know the truth may read the record himself 
and find it to be a fact that the Fiji Islands 
have been changed under the influence of the 
Bible from man-eaters to clean, consistent 
Christians. China is being revolutionized by 
the Bible. India has heard the Bible's call, 
[52] 



** Awake, thou that steepest." She is brushing 
the slumber of centuries from her eyes. The 
influence of the Bible to awaken the greatest 
nations of the world is a challenge to the intel- 
lect of the centuries. 

The Bible has challenged and conquered 
the intellect of great leaders. William Glad- 
stone called the Bible ''The Impregnable Rock 
of Holy Scriptures.'' His opinion on that sub- 
ject is worth more than Spencer's or Huxley's 
or Darwin's. These last were not overstudious 
students of the Scriptures. When asked what 
made England great, Queen Victoria held aloft 
a copy of the English Bible, saying, '*This is 
what has made England great." 

Every school-boy knows what an earnest 
student Abraham Lincoln was of the Bible; 
that a text from the Bible w^as the keynote of 
his greatest speech in Springfield. It is a sig- 
nificant fact that the foremost leaders among us 
to-day are firm believers in the Bible. 

1. The Bible has challenged and conquered 
the intellect of the greatest scientists. Michael 
Faraday, Richard Proctor, Lord Kelvin and 
Henry Drummond, and after a long, dark 
struggle with doubt and despair, Romanes 
himself came back with firm faith to God and 
the Bible. These are matters of reliable record. 
The records are open to any man who wants 
the truth. 

[53] 



2. The Bible has challenged and conquered 
the intellect of the greatest artists. Raphael, 
Angelo, Holman Hunt, Hoffman and Tissot 
found the Bible to be the world's greatest book 
of beauty. It is the picture-maker's Paradise. 

3. The Bible has challenged and mastered 
the intellect of the greatest musicians. Where 
have the masters gone for their themes? Not 
to Socrates, nor Plato, nor Spencer, nor Darwin. 
They have gone to Moses, to Elijah, to David, 
to Paul, to Jesus. The greatest musicians have 
all gone to the Bible for their greatest inspira- 
tions. They have found their sweetest strains 
in this splendid symphony of the soul, God's 
great Book, my mother's blessed Bible. 

4. The Bible has challenged and conquered 
the intellect of the greatest reformers. There 
is where John Knox found the spirit which led 
him to say, '^Give me Scotland, or I die." 
There is where Wesley learned his wisdom. It 
is where Luther derived his invincible courage. 
The reformers have reformed the people and 
the Bible has reformed the reformers. Right- 
eousness is our greatest word and war-cry this 
hour. And we got it from the Bible. 

5. The Bible has challenged and conquered 
the intellect of the greatest writers. And who 
are the greatest writers? Generalization is 
easy. Let us name some of the greatest writers. 
Where did John Milton find the material for 

[ 54 ] 



the greatest epic poem in the English language? 
He found it in the Bible. Where did the greatest 
allegory in any language come from? John 
Bunyan drew it from the Bible. Shakespeare 
drank deeply at the Scriptural fountain. Walter 
Scott said to Lockhart, his secretary, ''There 
is only one Book," pointing to the Bible. Dr. 
Henry Van Dyle has written a beautiful book 
entitled ''The Poetry of Tennyson.'' In the 
chapter on "The Bible in Tennyson,'* he opens 
with this: "It is safe to say that there is no 
other book which has had so great an influence 
upon the literature of the world as the Bible." 
It challenges the literary intellect of the cen- 
turies. 

There is nothing in the latest findings in 
the geology and topography of Bible lands that 
does not confirm the records of the Book. The 
facts in the Book fit the facts in the physical 
geography of the country. With every archae- 
ological discovery the world of scholarship is 
growing surer and surer of the Book. Its cer- 
tainty and incisiveness bespeak the super- 
natural. 

Coleridge said, "The Bible finds me out more 
deeply than any other book." More than any 
other book, it is a Book of the soul. That is 
true with reference to the sorrows of the soul. 
There are only two kinds of sorrow. There is 
a hopeless sorrow and there is a hopeful sor- 

[55] 



row. The Bible tells us that '*We sorrow not 
as those who have no hope." No other book is 
such a comforter of human sorrow. It is the 
only Book whose light obliterates the darkness 
of death. 

The Bible is the Book of the Soul with ref- 
erence to the sins of the soul. It says, **The 
wages of sin is death." No man needs to go 
far in sin to find that truth scorched deep in 
his soul. Sin kills. It kills hope, happiness, 
and holiness. 

But the Bible is a Book of the soul with ref- 
erence to the soul's salvation. It is the only 
Book that tells how to recover from the wreck 
and ruin of sin. It tells of a Savior from sin. 
That story is unique in the world's literature. 
The more light you pour upon that sweet story, 
the more the weary world believes it. Yes, 
my heart, the Bible is the Book of the Soul. It 
tells of the only cure for sorrow. It names the 
only Savior from sin. Great Book of God, I 
will hold thee close to my heart forever. Surely, 
''The word of the Lord is tried/' 



[56] 



VII 
No Escape from the Supernatural 

A MIRACLE IS an act and the result of an act 
which is out of the ordinary course of nature 
or human nature. It is the special sign of the 
special work of the supernatural. In the 
Christian sense it is something done which 
could not be done by nature or by human 
nature. The miracle may use both nature and 
human nature, but its source must lie above 
and beyond them both. The source and strength 
of a miracle must be in the hypernatural or 
supernatural. 

We are to keep in mind that these studies 
are seeking to show that Christian Convictions 
are believable. They are more believable than 
are their opposites. They are certainly more 
satisfying to the soul than their antipodes. A 
very simple thing which some people seem to 
overlook is that no man evades the responsi- 
bility of believing something simply because he 
refuses to believe what Christians believe. If 
he does not believe what Christians believe, 

[57] 



then he will believe something else. What is 
that something else? Why does a man be- 
lieve something else? These are fair ques- 
tions. They ought to have affirmative and fair 
reply. 

Another point ought to be noticed here for 
a moment. Disbelief in the higher things of 
the heart is no sign of superiority. Disregard 
for the spiritual is not a sign of intellectuality. 
Disbelief in miracles is no sign of mental and 
moral superiority. But a number of people 
who lay claim to so-called ''Liberal intelligence," 
are tinged with that notion. Nor is belief in 
miracles a sign of mental or moral inferiority. 
A number of the ''smart set" these days seem 
to suspect that it is. The claim is here made 
that in the light of the facts it is more intelligent 
to believe in miracles than it is not to believe 
in them. It would seem unreasonable if there 
were not something beyond the reach of reason. 

But you say you have some doubts con* 
cerning miracles. That is a candid confession. 
Others have doubted. Have you examined the 
doubts of others to see whether or not they were 
well founded? Such an examination might 
put you back on the path of faith. And that is 
the examination which we now propose. Let 
us look the objections to miracles fairly in the 
face. Christian faith is not afraid of an open 
field and a fair fight. Perhaps a half dozen 

[58] 



objections might be considered representative 
of all of them. Let us turn the searchlight on 
a few of these samples. 

Perhaps the first objectors to miracles were 
the Pharisees. They murdered a Man who is 
now acknowledged to have been the only per- 
fect Man. They conceded that this Man 
could cast out devils, but they said that He 
did it through the prince of devils. Do not 
miss the point here. The murderers of the Man 
admitted His miracles. They were forced to 
believe what they actually saw. They said, 
** Indeed, a notable miracle has been wrought 
. . . . and we can not deny it." As to His 
method of performing the miracle. He answered 
them then and there. And that answer has 
never been disestablished. It has never been 
refuted by any foe of His. This objection to 
miracles is out of date. If one must have an 
objection, better find a new one. This one has 
been dead about two thousand years. 

Then there are objections which have been 
called ** heathen objections to miracles." They 
said that the miracles were wrought by some of 
the gods that filled the air. Again the point 
stands out that the miracles were admitted. 
This objection might be modernized so as to 
say that the miracles were wrought by mi- 
crobes, or infusoria. That would have a more 
scientific sound. This fossil objection was a 
[59] 



product of Polytheism, and Polytheism has 
been dead for centuries and centuries. 

There is what is known as the objection of 
Pantheism concerning miracles. A man by the 
name of Spinoza was the chief objector. The 
principal point in his objection was that it did 
not harmonize with his idea of God. What 
was Spinoza's idea of God? He held that God 
is everything and that everything is God. And 
that is Pantheism. The real intellect of the 
world has long ago discarded that notion. 
Tennyson has a poem on ^^The Higher Panthe- 
ism/* which is beautifully Christian and infi- 
nitely removed from the Pantheism of Spinoza. 
Tennyson sings: 

** Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, 
And Spirit with Spirit can meet. 
Closer is He than breathing. 
And nearer than hands and feet.'* 

There was the skeptical objection to miracles 
led by Hume. He claimed that miracles were 
not believable because they were contrary to 
human experience. But whose human ex- 
perience was he talking about? Human ex- 
perience is a broad word. This objector over- 
looked the fact that one human experience may 
reach realms of realization that another human 
experience has not yet reached. An artist 
reaches experiences in the discovery of beauty 
which is beyond the ordinary experiences of 

[60] 



men. It is easily possible that one human 
being may experience things which are not at 
all experienced by another. For essential ego- 
tism, Hume's objection to miracles stands as the 
masterpiece. It is hardly fair to make his own 
human experience the supreme gauge of all pos- 
sible human experience. Such a position is little 
less than laughable now. One human experi- 
ence is not big enough to measure all human 
experience. Hume was trying to measure the 
sea with his theoretical thimble. But no man's 
thimble is big enough to measure the sea. 

When Hume presented his theory the tel- 
ephone was not in harmony v/ith human ex- 
perience, nor the phonograph, nor wireless 
telegraphy — but nobody finds them ''contrary 
to human experience" now. Real scholarship 
smiles at Hume's objection to miracles. Modern 
science and invention have made Hume's theory 
silly. Hume also confessed that he had not 
read the miracles of the Bible. Perhaps he 
had read some others which were ''contrary 
to human experience." But a man who, accord- 
ing to his own confession, has not seen a thing, 
would hardly be a reliable witness as to how 
it looks. A man who had never heard anything 
would scarcely be a good judge of music. Hume, 
never ^having seen nor experienced a miracle, 
nor having read an authentic account of those 
who did, is not a competent witness on the 
[61] 



subject. In the language of law his testimony 
would be ^* incompetent and irrelevant." 

A man by the name of Paulus published a 
Commentary in 1800. He named it a '' Rational 
Commentary.'' Well, alchemy was once con- 
sidered rational, but not now in this day of 
chemical science. Astrology was once con- 
sidered rational, but it is not so considered now 
in this day of Astronomy. Paulus said that 
Christ did not make bread for the five thou- 
sand. He said that Christ did not raise Lazarus 
from the dead, but that He sharply guessed the 
exact time when that good man would awaken 
from his slumbers. Now, anybody can say 
such things as Paulus said, but nobody can 
prove them. Paulus' position is neither theo- 
logical, nor scientific, nor philosophical. It is 
whimsical and foolish. No modern mind can 
stand with him. 

As we have seen before in these studies, 
experience is the all-important thing, and not 
an explanation of the experience. Experience 
is the great fact to be reckoned with in human 
life, whether anybody can explain it or not. 
The first thing the really scientific mind does 
is to find the fact, and then, as Romanes says, 
search for the principle behind the fact. Then 
the scientist will explain the fact, if he can. 
But if he can not explain the fact, the real 
scientist is intelligent enough to accept the 

[62] 



fact by faith, and so hold it until he finds aa 
explanation, if one is possible. 

All science admits that many things in mat- 
ter and mind are believable, though the scientist 
may not be able to explain them. This is pre- 
cisely the position the Christian mind takes 
toward the miraculous. The miraculous is a fact, 
though no one may ever be able to explain the 
fact of the miraculous. Much of the believable 
is inexplicable; so, much that is inexplicable in 
Christianity may still be rationally believable. 
Even science may be scientific and still leave 
some things unexplained. So Christianity may 
still be Christian, though it leave some things 
unexplained. Not explanation, but experience, 
is the all-important thing both in science and 
Christianity. There is always a point in every- 
thing beyond which no human mind can explain. 
It is so about a grain of sand. It is so about a 
star. It is so about the soul. 

We are to keep in mind that we are studying 
the ** Credibility of Christian Convictions.'' 
We are searching into the believableness of the 
miraculous. For one reason, the miraculous is 
believable because the worst enemies Christ 
ever had said plainly, ''That indeed a notable 
miracle has been wrought we can not deny." 
A man's foe does not admit a favorable truth 
about his enemy unless compelled to do so. 

Again, what may be called the gradation of 
[63] 



possibilities makes the miraculous believable. 
I know there are ranges of physical power far 
beyond any that I know in my muscles. A 
Marathon runner can perform physical feats 
to which I am a stranger in the experience of 
my muscles. But I must not disbelieve his 
exploit because it is contrary to my experience. 
His act is not believable from the standpoint 
of my feebleness, but it is easily believable from 
the standpoint of his swiftness and strength. 

Carry that idea into the realm of mental 
achievements. Here is a work of art. From 
the point of my limitations it is unbelievable 
as a possibility. But from the standpoint of 
Turner's or Thorwaldsen's genius, it is easily 
believable. Here is an actual *^ Flying machine." 
A few years ago such a thing was unbelievable. 
It would be still unbelievable from the stand- 
point of my mechanical disingeniousness, but 
not from the standpoint of the mechanical 
genius who made it. 

Carry the idea one step further. Take it 
over into the spiritual sphere. The Protestant 
world is largely the product of one powerful 
personality, that of Martin Luther. He was a 
spiritual genius, or better, a genius spiritualized. 
The same truth holds of Dwight L. Moody. 
These men were spiritual specialists. God 
specializes in spiritual matters as well as in 
music, oratory, poetry, art. 
[64] 



Things are believable from the standpoint 
of power which are not believable from the 
standpoint of weakness. Things are credible 
from the standpoint of wisdom which are not 
credible from the standpoint of ignorance. 
This is the point I make concerning the credi- 
bility of the miraculous. If God can make a 
universe, He can manage a universe. And He 
may do it all without rny knowing at all how 
He does it. 

From the standpoint of Mozart, music is 
easy. He goes into musical mysteries which 
seem miraculous to common people. But 
Mozart's music is credible enough when I know 
Mozart. Miracles are believable enough when 
I know Almighty God. Given the Christ of 
the miraculous, and it is easy to believe the 
miracles of Christ. 



[65] 



VIII 
Miraculous Faculties 

A man's faculties must fit his tasks. Nico- 
demus was sure-sighted enough to see that. 
Men do not expect a dwarf to measure up to 
the height of the giant. We do not expect a man 
with no voice to sing. We do not expect an 
unmathematical mind to understand the science 
of numbers. We do not expect vision of a man 
who has no sight. In our judgments everywhere 
we fit the faculties to their tasks. That is the 
common-sense rule of all mankind. There is 
a great truth here that is worth seeing. And 
this truth will help us to understand the be- 
lievableness of miracles. 

It will help us to be reminded that every- 
where we expect great things from great fac- 
ulties. Nicodemus was not able to account for 
the great things that Christ had been doing 
merely on the basis of any ordinary human 
faculties with which he was familiar. He there- 
fore concluded that ^*No man can do these 
miracles that Thou doest, except God be with 
[66] 



him/' It IS as if Nicodemus had said, "The 
deeds that this man Christ has been doing are 
too big for any mere human faculties that I 
know of to fit.'' That is the way men reason 
now, and it is sound reasoning. 

Take it in the fine arts. We expect a great 
picture from a great painter. The great picture 
fits the great painter's faculties. We should be 
surprised and disappointed with a little unar- 
tistic rhyme from Longfellow, Lowell, or Kip- 
ling. In all these things we naturally expect the 
work to fit the faculties of the workman. After 
the manner of Nicodemus' reasoning, we say, 
''No man can paint these pictures that thou 
paintest except his faculties exceed the faculties 
of the ordinary man." No man can make a 
great poem, except his poetic faculties exceed 
the faculties of the ordinary man. 

Milton was right when he said that before 
a man could produce a great poem he must 
himself be a great poem. That exactly shows 
the point we are now arrived at concerning 
Christ and miracles. No man could do the 
great miracles that He did, except he himself 
was a great miracle. That is a perfectly fair 
method of reasoning everywhere else, and it is 
a perfectly fair method of reasoning with ref- 
erence to Christ and the miracles which He 
wrought. Of course, the man who will not be- 
lieve, will not believe, though one rose from the 

[ 67 ] 



dead. All we can do is to give him a thorough- 
going reason for our faith and then move on. 

The same truth may be traced in the me- 
chanical arts. From a man with such wonderful 
faculties as those of Thomas Edison, we expect 
great inventions. No man can do such things 
in wireless telegraphy as Marconi has done, 
except he be a great electrical genius. Marconi 
could not do what he does except the secret of 
electricity be with him. No man unacquainted 
with such secrets could approach such achieve- 
ments. This is a fair way to reason with ref- 
erence to the inventor and his inventions. It 
is also a fair way to reason with reference to 
Christ and His miracles. '' No man can do these 
miracles that Thou doest, except God be with 
him/' 

The same principle runs through all of our 
estimates in nature. We do not expect the 
fire-fly to give as much light as the lightning. 
The lightning flash is too big a fact to fit the 
fire-fly's faculties. The humming-bird builds a 
little nest. The eagle builds a big one. The fact 
of the nest in each case fits the faculties of each 
bird. The hawk is not expected to sing, but 
the mocking-bird is. And even here, after the 
manner of Nicodemus' reasoning, we say of the 
mocking-bird, '*No bird can sing as thou singest 
except the vocal faculties of the mocking-bird 
be with him.'' 

[68] 



So we have found that the reasoning of 
Nicodemus is sound as applied to the things of 
men and nature. And in all fairness of mind, 
we sincerely believe it to be sound as applied 
to Christ and miracles. ''No man can do these 
miracles that Thou doest, except God be with 
him.'' The fact in the miracle is too big for the 
fact in the ordinary faculties of men. 

How do we come to our knowledge of 
history? How do I know there was such a 
man as George Washington? I know it by 
human testimony. There is no other possible 
way for me to know it. It is far more reason- 
able for me to believe this testimony than it 
would be not to believe it. It is human testi- 
mony that makes the career and character of 
George Washington believable to me. That is 
true of every historical personage. My knowl- 
edge of history comes by faith and faith alone 
• — faith in human testimony. Did I reject hu- 
man testimony, the whole sphere of historical 
knowledge would be excluded from my intel- 
lectual equipment and belief. 

The same is largely true of astronomical 
knowledge. Copernicus, Kepler, Proctor, and 
Newcomb study the stars and then tell the 
story. They testify as to the distances of these 
stars and their characteristics, and we know 
something about these stellar laws. Why? 
How do we come to this knowledge? We come 
[69] 



to it by believing the testimony of the astron- 
omer. 

All the natural sciences are believable be- 
cause we believe in the reliability of human 
testimony. The chemist testifies and we be- 
lieve in chemistry. The geologist testifies and 
we believe in geology. The botanist testifies 
and we believe in botany. We might investi- 
gate and try to look into all these secrets our- 
selves, but we are too busy with other matters, 
so we take the scientist's word for it. And as 
a rule, experience has shown that to be a safe 
thing to do. We know something about these 
wonderful things in nature because we believe 
in the reliability of human testimony. 

We have gone far enough this way to see 
where our truth is leading us. It is leading us 
to the larger truth about Christ and miracles. 
Men heard reliable testimony that He did these 
great deeds. Reliable men were eye witnesses 
of many of the miracles that He wrought. 
He opened the eyes of the blind. He unstopped 
the ears of the deaf. He cured mortal maladies. 
He raised the dead to life. And many other 
mighty works did He do. His very enemies 
said, ^*A notable miracle hath indeed been 
wrought, and we can not deny it." 

The most reliable of His friends said the 
same. About five hundred witnesses testified 
that they saw Him after He had been crucified 

[70] 



and that He was alive again. Tens of thou- 
sands of the most intelligent men and women 
of the world since that have testified that they 
believed in the reliability of these testimonies. 
Why not believe these testimonies? Are not 
the witnesses as reliable as those who tell us 
about George Washington, Caesar, Napoleon? 
Are not these witnesses to the master miracle, 
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as trustworthy 
as Copernicus, Kepler, Proctor, Newcomb, when 
they bear testimony about the stars? Why do 
you believe Linneus' testimony about the rose 
any more than you believe Paul's testimony 
about the resurrection? Was not Paul the 
greater man of the two? From the standpoint 
of personality and intellectuality and reliability, 
Paul's testimony is more reliable than that of 
Darwin or Spencer or Huxley or Tyndall, or of 
any other man of history or science. I believe 
the testimony of the historians. I believe the 
testimony of the scientists. I believe in the 
testimony of the Christians. I believe in the 
resurrection of the dead. On the best possible 
testimony, I believe that Jesus Christ died and 
that He arose again from the dead. 

I exult with Paul, ''O death, where is thy 
sting; O grave, where is thy victory?'' The 
greatest truths of human history are established 
by valid human testimony. The greatest truths 
of science are established by human testimony. 

[71] 



So also are the greatest truths of the miracles 
established by valid human testimony. 

A false claim concerning a true thing does 
not invalidate the truth. Almost everything 
good has been counterfeited. But no amount 
of amalgam can invalidate the worth of pure 
gold. As might be expected, false claims have 
been made concerning the miraculous. Design- 
ing people have played on the credulity of the 
innocent and unsuspecting. The miraculous 
has been claimed where there was only fraud. 
Jugglery and tricks have been palmed off on 
people for miracles. 

Counterfeit coin has been passed for real 
money, but we still believe in the reality of 
money and in the value of real money. So the 
Christian mind still believes on the evidence of 
most valid human testimony in the reality of 
miracles, and in the value of real miracles. 
The discovery of the spurious only enhances 
our appreciation of the genuine. We doubt 
the false and more firmly believe the true. 

Mechanical mastery makes miracles be- 
lievableo If a clock-maker can construct and 
start a clock, there is nothing strange about his 
being able to stop it. Did not God make the 
sun? We are not believing that anybody else 
did. But if God made the sun and started it, 
why should any reasonable person stagger at 
the fact that '*He made the sun stand still on 

[72] 



Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ajalon?'* 
God might very wisely do something out of the 
ordinary, even though an ordinary person might 
not expect it. God is an extraordinary God. 
The whole world is slowly finding out that fact 

Then there is a natural clue to many of the 
miracles. For this reason the miraculous is 
believable. What about turning water into 
wine? Is that incredible? But that process 
will be going on all over California next spring. 
Some strange power in the life of the grapevine 
will change water into grape sap, then into 
grape juice. Because we are familiar with the 
phenomena connected with the fact, we do not 
wonder at it. But is any man sure that the 
same power which changes water into wine 
gradually in a California vineyard might not 
make that same change suddenly in the interest 
of humanity at a wedding in Cana of Galilee? 

Could not the same power that multiplies 
the fishes by natural processes in the sea, mul- 
tiply them by supernatural processes in an 
emergency with a hungry crowd in Palestine? 
Can not that power which multiplies the grain 
of wheat a hundredfold in a California wheat- 
field by natural processes, multiply five loaves 
of bread suddenly to feed a hungry multitude 
in Palestine? Does not all this point out the 
rationale of the miraculous? 

[73] 



IX 
Let Us Pray 

A WORLD of prayerless human beings would be 
incredible. The instinct of communication is 
universal. A non-communicative mind is an 
abnormal mind. Thought, feeling, desire, seek 
to express themselves, and to express themselves 
to another. Prayer is a plea for help. It may 
be a plea to nature, or to human nature, or to 
the Supernatural. In the Christian sense, it is 
a plea made to God. 

The Christian does not pray to a theory, nor 
to a creed, nor to an impersonal force. The 
Christian addresses his prayer to the Infinite 
Person. The evidences of God's personality 
are ample and overwhelming. If some person 
lights the lamps in the cathedral, then some 
Person lights the stars in the sky. If an intel- 
ligent person is needed to paint the picture of 
the landscape, then an intelligent person is 
necessary to the creation of the landscape. A 
world without a God to make it would be as un- 
thinkable as a wagon without a man to make 

[74] 



it. Man makes his supreme plea to the supreme 
Person — God. 

Personal communication between persons is 
an every-day experience. If God is a person 
and a man is the person He has created, then it 
would be in harmony with everything we know 
that they should mutually desire communica- 
tion. Christianity calls this communication 
on the part of man, prayer. 

It is well to keep in mind that mystery is 
connected with every method of mental and 
moral communication. If anybody can explain 
any of these methods of communication, well 
and good. But we must have the experience 
of communication, whether we have the expla- 
nation or not. There is more profit in the prac- 
tice of prayer than in the philosophy of prayer. 

Take the literary method of communica- 
tion of person with person. How it is that the 
epistle, the poem, the book can convey senti- 
ment and thought to the reader, none can tell. 
By this method Milton, long dead, spoke to 
me, who am alive. By this literary method 
Milton conveys the thoughts and sentiments 
of his mind to my mind. Any of us may have 
the experience. None of us may have the 
explanation of the experience. 

Take the mechanical method of communica- 
tion between persons. It is a matter of experi- 
ence and not of explanation. The telegraph wire 

[75] 



carries your message to your friend a thousand 
miles away, and brings back his response in a 
few moments or hours. No man can strip the 
mystery from this process. One man wires his 
prayer to another and the other man wires 
back the answer. Marconi has made the mys- 
tery bring his secret closer still by his wireless 
telegraphy. 

If one man can communicate through in- 
visible ether by means of wireless telegraphy 
with another man a hundred miles away, it 
would be strange if a man might not talk through 
space to his Maker. If a man may talk through 
a telephone to a friend, then why may he not 
talk through space into the ear of his Infinite 
Friend? He is not far from every one of us. 
Space is no barrier to His speech. He is always 
close, ^Xloser than hands and feet.'' 

It is said that a phonograph is kept in Lon- 
don into which Robert Browning once spoke. 
Old friends go to that phonograph to hear the 
poet's voice. From the foregoing considera- 
tions and from many others that might be ad- 
duced, it is plain that prayer is practically reason- 
able and reasonably practical. It is a reasonable 
conviction to hold that the listening ear of God 
may hear the speaking soul of man. 

Take the purely spiritual method of com- 
munication between person and person. It may 
be by a word, a touch, a look, an atmosphere. 

[76] 



Who can tell how? In the final analysis all 
communication is spiritual. Like can corre- 
spond with like. God is a spirit. Man is a 
spirit. Would it not be unaccountably strange, 
and certainly abnormal if these Spirits did not 
communicate with each other? Spirit can com- 
municate with spirit. Therefore communica- 
tion is possible and practicable between God 
and man. Does not the calling voice of God 
prophesy the answering voice of man? God's 
voice may speak in whispers, or it may shout 
in thunders. Does not the poet tell the truth 
we all have felt? 

**One great Voice august 
Is speaking always in this world of men; 
Speaking direct — no need of word or pen — 
Mystic, and yet so clear! 

Do you hear a Voice 
Calling sweetly, softly through the years — 
Through the wrong and sorrow, through the tears 

Of a wasted life? 

'Tis the Voice of God 
Sweet, appealing, as in Eden's grove; 
Sternly warning in His righteous love, 

'Tis the Father's Voice. 

Aye, the Father's Voice, 
Calling ever, always through the years, 
Through all wrong and sorrow — through all tears — 

Calling children home!" 

[77] 



Prayer is the doing of something by man 
which leads to the doing of something by man's 
Maker. God is constantly doing certain things 
because men do certain other things. A man 
plants an orchard, but God makes it grow and 
bloom and bear fruit. God made the orchard 
grow there because the man planted it there. 
Man plants the waste places with wheat and 
corn. And because man plants the waste places 
God grows harvests in the waste places. As a 
rule God does not grow the harvest unless man 
plants the seed. If man will do this, then 
God will do that. Here is a law of the condi- 
tional which we have all caught sight of. This 
law is easily traceable through the material 
world. 

The law of the conditional is also traceable 
in the mental sphere. God furnishes ample 
material for our mental growth. But we must 
meet the conditions of that growth. There is 
nothing arbitrary about it. It is as plain a law 
for mind as gravitation is for matter. 

This law is seen in the spiritual sphere. 
Because I take material food God makes it 
nourish my material body. Because I take 
truth into my mind He makes it nourish my 
intellect. Because I take His life into my life 
and because He lives, I live. The bud grafted 
into the tree's trunk partakes of that tree's 
life. My living spirit grafted into God's living 

[78] 



Spirit makes me partaker of His life. Once 
more tsre are to notice that all of these processes 
are matters of experience and not of explana- 
tion. 

Thus it is that the central principle of 
prayer runs through all the spheres of matter, 
mind, and spirit. Herein is where the perfect 
wisdom shows. Man lives in all of these, and 
therefore prayer must operate in all of these. 
If God does anything for man, why should He 
not do it by the principle of prayer as well as 
by any other principle? Manifestly the opera- 
tion of His power on any principle would be 
mysterious. That grows out of the greatness 
and perfection of His plan. Some little scheme 
might be thoroughly sifted, but not this. This 
principle of prayer is made to fit into all con- 
ditions and all climates and into all the ranges 
of human experience everywhere. Though no 
man may know the power of prayer by philos- 
ophy, any man anywhere may know its power 
by practice. Prayer is too big for explanation; 
it is just the right size for experience. 

It has been well said that because there is 
a dependent there must also be an independent. 
There is this side, therefore there must be the 
other side. And the other side is there, whether 
I have seen it or not. I can see some points 
plainly on the practical side of prayer, but I 
must not be baffled if I can not compass the 
[79] 



philosophy of prayer. Through the practice 
of prayer I can experience the power of prayer. 
We can never make permanent spiritual 
progress without prayer. Our prayers are the 
footsteps of the soul by which we walk to God. 
A graphic picture of the soul's struggle is in the 
following lines: 

"O, long and dark the stairs I trod, 
With stumbling feet to find my God. 

*' Gaining a foothold bit by bit, 
Then slipping back and losing it; 

*' Never progressing, striving still. 
With weakening grasp and fainting will. 



"Then came a certain time when I 
Loosened my hold and fell thereby. 

" Down to the lowest step my fall, 
As if I had not climbed at all. 

"And while I lay despairing there 
I heard a footfall on the stair, 

*'In the same path where I, dismayed, 
Faltered and fell and lay afraid. 

"And lo! when hope had ceased to be, 
My God came down the stairs to me.** 



[80] 



X 

The Christ Who Is God 

''And His name shall be called Wonderful/' 
Now after more than nineteen hundred years 
of human history since He came, does anybody 
think that He was misnamed? Why should 
anybody think that Homer was misnamed 
poet? Is there any reason for thinking that 
Plato was misnamed philosopher? Does any- 
body think that it was a misnomer for Mozart 
to be called musician? But Homer and Plato 
were born long before Christ was born. Mozart 
was born long after Christ was born. Why 
does no one think that Homer was misnamed? 
The answer is that the after facts of poetry 
and the history of literature have made good 
Homer's claim. Why does no one think that 
Plato was misnamed? The answer is that the 
after facts of philosophy and the history of 
philosophy have made good Plato's claim. No 
one contests the claim that Mozart was a musi- 
cian. Why does no one contest that claim? 
Simply because the facts of musical history 
completely support that claim. 
6 [ 81 ] 



On the same fair principle of reasoning, no 
one can now contest the claim of Jesus Christ. 
Why can no man reasonably contest Christ's 
claim? Because the facts of Christian history 
completely support that claim. It was per- 
fectly fitting to call His name '* Wonderful." 

A Christless world would be a world uncured 
of its cares and its crimes. It would mean the 
universal reign of red-handed ruin. No re- 
wards, nor reunions, no resurrection unto ever- 
lasting life. A Christless world would be a 
world from whose sky the stars and the sun 
have been swept away. It would be a world 
whose fields were denuded of flowers and frozen 
over with eternal frosts. A Christless world 
would be cold, cheerless, dark, and dead. 

**What the sun is to that flower, Jesus 
Christ is to my heart." That was the sweet 
and beautiful creed of Lord Tennyson. And that 
has been the experience of millions of the world's 
best men and women since Jesus came. 

Take Christ out of the calendar and we 
would not know what year we were living in, 
or how to date our Christmas greetings to our 
friends. It would disarrange and confuse all 
the records of history and utterly change the 
map of the world. It would even bewilder all 
commercial reckoning to take Christ out of 
the calendar. But, thank God! until some man 
of the night can pluck the sun out of the sky, 

[82] 



no man can take Christ out of the calendar. 
However divergent our views may be on many 
things, we all agree in this, that Christmas 
comes in December, in the year of ''Our Lord." 

His was a wonderful name because His 
was a wonderful nature. No name that has 
been on the lips of men has had such influ- 
ence as the name of Jesus. Do not let that 
statement pass without examination. Exam- 
ine it in the light of the four great points in 
human experience. 

With reference to the sins of men the name 
of Christ has been wonderful in its influence. 
That name stands utterly alone in relation to 
this sphere of human experience. No thor- 
oughly informed person would think of putting 
any other name alongside of it. The greatest 
reformers and the greatest leaders of mankind 
have persistently declared that they have 
experienced forgiveness of sins through faith 
in that name. And who is he that can intelli- 
gently call in question that confession, seeing 
that the people who made it were persons of 
unimpeachable character? 

Christ's name has been ''Wonderful" in its 
influence to soothe the sorrows of men. It 
would be impossible for an unreality to have 
the comforting influence of the name of Christ. 
When sorrows come in like a flood, that name 
changes our sobbing into song. It sweetens 
[83] 



our disappointments to know that they may 
indeed be '*His appointments." When the 
''little white hearse" came to our door, it was 
unspeakably sweet to hear Him say, *' Suffer 
the little children to come unto Me." And how 
could our hearts have ever rallied again had we 
not heard Him say so often above the sleeping 
dust of our sacred dead, "I am the resurrection 
and the life." It must be admitted that the 
name of Jesus has had, and to-day has more 
than ever before, a matchless influence to soothe 
the sorrows of men. 

The despairs of men — what an influence the 
name of Christ has had to dispel human despair! 
Sometimes a cloud of utter darkness has hovered 
over the heart. The night was long and lonely. 
Wearied almost unto death, we have waited 
and watched for the morning. It really seemed 
as if daylight would never come again. Then 
this '' bright and morning star" shed His 
splendor on our souls. 

How wonderful has been the influence of 
Christ's name on our thoughts and feelings 
about human destiny. ''Though a man were 
dead, yet if he believe in Me, he shall live 
again." Simple belief in those brave words 
has brought many a man to his feet again. The 
whole question of destiny was only a vague 
guess till Christ set His heel on the neck of 
death and snatched the key from the grave. 

[ 84 ] 



Till He did that death had been nothing but a 
terrible tragedy. Since that many a timid 
soul has gone singing into its soothing shadows. 

Christ is called the Counsellor. Have 
wiser counsels than His ever been given to the 
world? Surely no one who is thoroughly in- 
formed would think of ranking with his counsels 
those of Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius. There 
is a sweeping and practical pungency about the 
counsels of Christ that easily set them off in a 
class by themselves. They are so broad as not 
to miss any vital point of human interest. The 
counsels of Christ are unmistakable concerning 
honesty. They are supremely wise concerning 
marriage and the home. He has pointed out 
the neighborly and brotherly relationships of 
men in a wider and wiser way than any other 
known to human history. In His parables and 
in His Sermon on the Mount is compressed the 
wisdom of the ages. 

Isaiah was right. Jesus was and is '*The 
Mighty God." Not mighty like Zeus or Thor 
of Hercules or some great human Samson, but 
mighty with the mightiness of God. It would 
be blasphemous hyperbole to call even Christ 
''The Mighty God" were it not true. But who 
could forgive sins but the Mighty God? Who 
could raise the dead to life again save the 
Mighty God? With squinting eyes, a man 
may strive to look the noonday sun in the face 
[85] 



and then deny the splendor of that sun, but 
such denial is of no avail. 

The man who denies the Godship of Jesus 
Christ in the face of the splendor that He has 
shed across the world, is simply not intellectu- 
ally aware of what he is doing. To treat any 
other truth like that would unfit such a man 
for trustworthy investigation in any sphere of 
human thinking. His findings in history or 
science or politics or philosophy could not be 
safely depended upon. A man who defiantly 
flings his fist into the face of facts may be a 
fierce fighter, but he is neither a safe guide nor 
a true teacher. 

A man who can disbelieve in the divinity of 
Jesus Christ in the face of His character, His 
influence, His inspiration to mankind, His life, 
His miracles, His death. His resurrection; a man 
I say who in the face of all these facts can dis- 
believe in the essential divinity of Jesus Christ, 
can fling defiance in the face of other authentic 
history and deny the essential statesmanship 
of Oliver Cromwell, George Washington, and 
Abraham Lincoln. Even the callous centurion 
who stood by His cross cried out, ''Truly, this 
was the Son of God.*' 

''And His name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting 
Father.'* Did Christ have any natural chil- 
dren? Then in what sense was He the Father? 
[86] 



Certainly not in any natural sense. But He is 
^^the Everlasting Father." Here is a claim of 
fatherhood made for Christ. And did He not 
Himself confirm that claim when He said, 
'*He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father?" 
Surely it takes more than the Darwinian theory 
of Evolution to account for Christ. It takes 
more than high-sounding human names to dis- 
credit Isaiah's claim for Christ. And it is only 
a superficial shift to say that Christ was a wise 
and good man — the wisest and best who ever 
lived. A wise and good man does not claim 
to be God. But Christ claimed both. He is 
therefore the prince of human frauds, or He is 
the Prince of Peace, the Savior of the world. 
Robert Browning is confessed by all compe- 
tent judges of literature to have been one of 
the greatest poets of the world. It would be 
interesting to know what this great repre- 
sentative mind thought of Christ. He was, 
like Tennyson and our own Richard Watson 
Gilder, a devout Christian. These great souls, 
who were also great seers, firmly believed in the 
Godship of Jesus Christ. To them the denial 
of His divinity would have been nothing less 
than nonsense. In Browning's great poem 
entitled ^'Christmas Eve," he puts his con- 
fession of faith in Christ. This is universally 
considered to be one of the finest religious 
poems in English literature. In this he prays 

[87] 



for a rationalizing German professor at Got- 
tingen. Hear the poet pray: 

"When thicker and thicker the darkness, fills 
The world through his misty spectacles 
And he gropes for something more substantial 
Than a fable, myth or personification, 
May Christ do for him what no mere man shall, 
And stand confessed as the God of salvation." 

He is the ** Prince of Peace" because He 
brings to the world the principles of peace. 
He brings peace by the truth and not by a 
theory. He is not a talker of platitudes. No 
preacher was more plainly practical than He 
who came to beat swords into plowshares and 
spears into pruning hooks. 

We have our national ''peace societies" now 
because He came. Every ''peace commission" 
is a practical tribute to this glorious "Prince of 
Peace." He comes to bring peace to the indi- 
vidual soul and peace to society. It is more 
important to find the experience of this peace 
than it is to find an explanation of it. I may 
have the experience. I may be happy without 
a well-defined philosophy, but I can not be happy 
without the experience of peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. 



[88] 



XI 
Light Through the Cypress Trees 

No MAN can explain the resurrection. And if 
God were to explain it, man would need a new 
set of faculties to understand the explanation. 
It can be shown that the belief in the resurrec- 
tion is a reasonable belief. It can be shown 
that the Christian conviction concerning the 
resurrection is a credible conviction. That is 
the purpose of this essay. 

**Why should it be thought a thing incred- 
ible with you that God should raise the dead?'* 
That is the question that Paul put to Herod 
Agrippa centuries ago. In his first letter to the 
Corinthians he gives a simple illustration which 
furnishes a key to the credibility of the resur- 
rection. As an illustration it is simple enough 
for any child to understand, but as pointing 
out a process it is profound enough for the 
faculties of any philosopher. Paul follows the 
example of Jesus by throwing light on one 
mystery by pointing out another. 
[89] 



Paul anticipated all these painful question- 
ings as to the process. He is writing this in 
that letter to the Corinthians: **But some man 
will say, *How are the dead raised up?' And 
with what body do they come?''* How natural 
is that question to the modern mind. It is as 
fresh as if it had been first propounded yester- 
day. But he makes short work of the reply: 
*' Foolish one, that which thyself sowest is not 
quickened except it die; and that which thou 
sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, 
but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of 
some other kind ; but God giveth it a body even 
as it hath pleased Him to give each seed a body 
of its own." He is simply saying in this fine 
figure that God is able to do as wonderful 
things with the human body that is laid in the 
grave as He is with the grain of wheat that is 
laid in the ground. We have seen Him do these 
wonders with a grain of wheat. We have seen 
the dead and empty kernel and we have seen 
the new and beautiful body that God gave it. 
This ought to make it easy for us to believe that 
He will give us a body ''like unto His own 
glorious body." The farmer works out his 
practical belief in the resurrection of the wheat. 
He does not puzzle about the process. If we 
stop to quibble over every process we will 
soon have no process to quibble about. The 
farmer may not have any philosophical knowl- 

[90] 



edge of the wheat's resurrection, but he has a 
working, practical knowledge, which is far 
better. The apostle's citation to the resurrec- 
tional processes in nature makes the conviction 
concerning the resurrection a credible convic- 
tion. 

The resurrection is credible from the stand- 
point of personal identity. Personal sameness 
does not consist in material sameness. It is 
now a familiar physiological fact that our 
physical bodies, as to the material that con- 
stitutes them, are thoroughly changed every 
few years. But my personal identity persists 
in spite of all these material changes. Personal 
sameness consists in the sameness of purpose 
and plan in the personality, or the individual 
thing. Fifty years ago a lad stuck a willow 
twig in the ground. The lad is now sixty years 
of age, but he insists that he is the same person 
who stuck that twig in the ground. He further 
insists that the large and beautiful willow tree 
is that same little twig larger grown. There 
has been a great change in both, but the 
individual identity of both is perfectly pre- 
served. 

It is said that hitherto a queer custom has 
led the custodians of a certain temple in Japan 
to renew the entire structure every ten years. 
Little by little the work of renewal is constantly 
going on. Every new part is exactly like the 
[91] 



old part which it replaces. We are told that 
this has been going on for a thousand years. 
If you could see a photograph of that temple 
taken a thousand years ago and another pho- 
tograph taken to-day, both pictures would show 
the same purpose and plan in the structure. 
No proportion, no carving, no tint changed. 
The purpose and plan of the structure remain 
unchanged. The architectural law about which 
the structure is built determines its identity. 
So the human body may be completely changed 
and yet retain intact its identity. Can not He 
who gave the soul one body, provide it with 
another if He choose? It is not at all an in- 
credible conviction that He will. 

The resurrection is credible from the view- 
point of changes which we already know take 
place in matter. Almost all changes in matter 
would seem incredible, were we not familiar 
with the phenomena attending them. If we 
were not familiar with the fact that a block of 
ice can be changed to fluid, then to vapor, 
then to invisible steam, and then separated into 
two distinct gases, such changes would seem 
incredible. But being familiar with the fact the 
attendant mystery is forgotten. Recent experi- 
ments with condensed air have brought to our 
attention certain conditions which for centu- 
ries seemed incredible and impossible. 

It is a fact familiar to the growers of roses 
[92] 



that material corruption of the most loathsome 
kind is transmuted by the life force of the rose 
into that exquisite fragrance known as the 
attar of roses. Such a change in matter appears 
incredible enough until the fact is forced into 
our experience through the senses. 

Some writer tells of a man who moved the 
remains of his friend's body from one cemetery 
to another. The body had been deposited in 
a vault. Only a handful of black ashes was 
visible in the casket when it was opened. What 
could a chemist do with this handful of black 
ashes? He could change it more or less com- 
pletely into heat and light. He could change 
the heat into electricity, then into light. This 
light could be flashed out into space at the rate 
of 190,000 miles per second. The electrician 
could take this handful of ashes in the form of 
electricity and flash it through wires around the 
world. These chemical changes ought to make 
It easy for us to believe that Christ can ** Change 
this vile body and make it like unto His own 
glorious body.'* 

Resurrection is credible from the standpoint 
of historical fact. It is as historically certain 
that Christ arose from the dead as it is that 
Julius Caesar did not. This historic fact has 
stood the heat of the critic's crucible for cen- 
turies. The miracles of science are making it 
easier every day to believe this greatest miracle 
[93] 



of history. Hard things are becoming easier and 
easier to believe. Incredulity in the face of a 
fact is only folly. The light that streams across 
the graves of our dead makes it plainer and 
plainer that **God standeth in the shadow keep- 
ing watch above His own.'' 

What practical meaning has this faith for us 
who sit in the shadows of grief and the grave? 
In the first place, it means Hope. We may not 
all have the same Easter theory or the same 
Easter theology, but we may all have the same 
Eastertide hope. From no other source can the 
spent torch of hope be relighted. All earthly 
lights have gone out at the grave. At the grave 
the beauty of art has faded. The music of 
poesy has hushed. The tongue of eloquence 
has stammered out its despair, saying, '* Death 
ends all.'' In the fogs of the grave's mystery 
the eyes of science have gone blind with tears. 
Philosophy only writes an interrogation across 
the death-mound of our own beloved dead. 
Agnosticism moans out its misery, saying, 
"Whether in mid-ocean or among the breakers 
of the farther shore, a wreck must mark at last 
the end of each and all." Leave Christ and His 
resurrection out of our reckoning, and all of our 
songs of hope must hush at the edge of the grave's 
dark. No earthly light has ever yet survived 
that sullen shadow. Christ alone went through 
death's tunnel with His torch undimmed. 
[94] 



Death has baffled all the world's curative 
agencies. The highest earthly skill must stand 
back when death enters. I would have slain 
death when he came for my mother, but he 
parried the blow of my sword. I would have 
felled him dead when he came to pluck the 
fairest flower in the family garden, but he fled 
like a black bat of the night. It moved him 
not that his blow broke my heart. Death is 
cold, cruel, heedless, heartless. Can anybody 
kill death? That is what my heart needs to 
know. Can Christ kill death? Authentic his- 
tory says He can. Springtime says He can. 
Eastertide says He can. A resurrected Lazarus 
says He can. He has drawn death's sting. 
Death is dead. Christ has killed death and 
carried off the keys. 

If there is some power that can change a 
destructive force into a constructive force, then 
death may be defeated. Death is destructive. 
Life is constructive. Plant life in my garden 
takes up dead matter and weaves it into the 
fairest forms of organic beauty. It is plain that 
plant life in my garden defeats death. If God 
comes to my garden He may come to my grave. 

The mockingbird ceases his singing long 
enough to seize and swallow a butterfly. That 
is the only way a butterfly could be made into 
music. The mockingbird's life has lifted the 
songless butterfly into the sphere of song. The 
[95] 



butterfly life had to die to reach the mocking- 
bird life. 

"Alas for him who never sees 
The stars shine through his cypress trees; 
Who hopeless lays his dead away, 
Nor looks to see the breaking day 
Across the mournful marble play; 
Who hath not learned in hours of faith, 

The truth to flesh and sense unknown, 
That life is ever lord of death, 
And love can never lose its own." 

The highest and best will triumph at last. 
That is the meaning of the risen Christ. This 
is the golden stairway of hope up which He 
would lead our staggering feet. It is the highest 
and holiest hope of the heart. 



[96] 



XII 
Facing the Future 

'. "The tissues of the life to be 

We weave with colors all our own; 
And in the field of destiny 
We reap as we have sown.'* 

A FRIEND of mine, a soldier, had a dream. He 
thought his company was on the march and 
had reached a certain place in the country. In 
his dream he could see the old, weather-beaten 
fence on one side of the country lane, and the 
little persimmon grove on the other. It was all 
as plain to him as if it had been a waking fact. 
The next day in really marching by that place 
my friend was surprised to find many features 
of the real scene exactly as he had seen them in 
his dream. 

Now, our present and our future are some- 
what related, like my friend's dream and its 
fulfillment. Much of to-day will reappear in 
the march of real life to-morrow. And some of 
the things that look small to-day will look 
surprisingly large to-morrow. Our present con- 

7 [97] 



duct is constantly projecting consequences into 
our future. The thoughts that we think to-day 
will be living things to-morrow. Eggs are being 
brooded to-day from whose broken shells living 
things will spring to-morrow. Thoughts that 
are brooded to-day will break into deeds to- 
morrow. 

A traveler returned to this country from In- 
dia with a few small serpent eggs. He brought 
the harmless looking things from the tropics to 
show to his friends. The reptile that laid these 
eggs was venomous enough, but the eggs them- 
selves appeared to be perfectly harmless. The 
traveler put them In a box in his library and 
forgot all about them. One day he was startled 
to see, on entering the library, several of those 
dangerous and poisonous serpents crawling over 
the floor. They were among his books and on 
his writing desk. 

The serpent eggs which he had brought 
home to show his friends had hatched. We 
must all have a care about the kind of eggs 
that we hide away In our hearts to hatch into 
living things to-morrow. Let us not cherish in 
our present thoughts that which we do not 
care to have spring into action in our future. 
We are sowing to-day the harvests of to-morrow. 
My pen is already wet with the ink with which 
I must write my record to-morrow. 

My future is to be stained through and 
[98] 



through with the colorings of to-day. That is 
the thought which I need to turn over and over 
again in my mind till it takes firm hold on my 
life. The key of my present will unlock the 
door of my future. The acorn to-day will be 
the oak to-morrow. The embers that smoulder 
to-day will break into full flame to-morrow. The 
breeze of the present will be the whirlwind of 
the future. Therefore it ought to give me sol- 
emn pause when I hear God saying, **He that 
soweth the wind shall reap the whirlwind." 
But it is a glorious truth that he who soeth 
golden grains of good shall reap a harvest of 
happiness. 

There is another fact we need to notice 
about our future. It will come to us gradually. 
Whether it will bring weal or woe, it will not 
come with its full weight at once. The God of 
the future is so good that He will give us lesson 
by lesson and load by load. Concerning the 
past, there has not one word of all His good 
promise failed. Then why should we be fearful 
about the future? The wise and good human 
teacher of our child gives lessons and responsi- 
bilities according to the capacity of our child. 
How foolish and unfounded is our fear that 
God will be less wise and good with us than 
the human teacher is with our child. 

There is still another fact about the future 
of all who do right. To all such the future is a 

[99] 



kind of storehouse into which present treasures 
are placed, and which will be more fully pos- 
sessed in the afterwhile. It is as if we were on 
a journey, and we send some precious things on 
before us to await our coming. We may forget 
for a time that we sent them on ahead. But we 
shall be reminded of it all on our arrival. That 
nurse who was so kind to the poor suffering 
man in the hospital did not know that she was 
laying up treasure for herself in the folds of the 
future. 

She was giving up sleep and rest, but she 
was to get back all the good that she gave up 
and more. She was not aware that the sufferer 
was possessed of great wealth. But after some 
years, when the patient had been long away 
from the hospital and the nurse was growing 
feeble with much serving, the rich man willed 
to her a large sum as an expression of his grat- 
itude to her for her kindness in the days gone 
by. She gave the best she had and the best 
came back to her. 

Once more we ask, '^What of the future?" 
And the answer comes telling us that the future 
for the human soul is interminable. The pull 
of an endless future has a wonderful power 
over human life. The lure of the future has led 
many a soul on to the summits who otherwise 
would have stopped in the slough of despair. 
When the future has no power at all on a man's 
[100] 



life, he IS apt in some despondent moment to 
stop short by suicide. 

But why do we beUeve in the future? Why 
do we beHeve in the interminable perpetuation 
of life. Is there a deep-rooted reason for such 
belief? Let me remind you here that there are 
reasons which may not be mathematical rea- 
sons. They may be just as good as mathe- 
matical reasons. It is a mistake to assume that 
all reasons are assignable or expressable. We 
have all some reasons for things which we feel, 
but never express. And I am calling your at- 
tention here to a point that is often overlooked. 

That point is that an unexpressed reason may 
be altogether as reasonable as one which is 
expressed in the clearest and strongest words. 
Ask a little child why it loves its mother. It 
feels that reason. But it is quite probable that 
it can neither comprehend nor state it. There 
are reasons for many things which can not be 
stated, but such reasons may be real and well- 
rooted nevertheless. When I ask, therefore, 
why we believe in a future life, in all fairness it 
ought to be remembered that we may feel in- 
telligent reasons for such belief which we can 
not intelligently express. 

^^ The gift of God is eternal life.'' Is not that 
statement itself the very best reason for believ- 
ing in the immortality of the soul? If temporary 
life is the gift of God, why may not future life 
[101] 



also be the gift of God? The wonder begins 
with the fact that God gave us Hfe at all. If, 
under the difificult conditions here, God can 
give a man hfe for seventy years, I see no 
reason why, under improved conditions, God 
may not give him Hfe for seventy centuries or 
for any number of centuries. 

In the fact that God gives temporary Hfe, 
I see the reason why He may give eternal Hfe. 
In the fact that He gives me Hfe at aH, I find the 
reason for the larger fact that He may give me 
life forever. Of all the things that God has 
started, the human soul may be one of them 
which it pleases Him never to stop. I believe 
the gift of God is eternal life because God says 
it is. And surely nobody will be foolish enough 
to say that this reason is not a good one. 

I believe that the gift of God is eternal life 
because of my instinctive desire to live forever. 
I have called this an instinctive desire. It is 
not acquired, so far as I know. I do not re- 
member when I did not have such desire. It 
was born with my birth. It has grown with my 
growth. It has enlarged with my enlarging 
life. I am sure that it would take something 
in the nature of hopeless tragedy to entirely 
remove such desire from my soul. This desire 
threads its way through all the tangled thickets 
of doubt. It persistently pushes its way through 
the stifling shadows that sometimes fall across 
[ 102 ] 



my way. Now, such a persistent longing for the 
perpetuation of life is significant of something 
beyond the temporary desires of flesh and 
blood. It is normal, and has its roots in nature. 

Other instinctive desires of lesser import 
find their legitimate fulfillment. What does the 
organic structure of the eye mean? What does 
the optic nerve's desire for light mean? It 
means that there is light and that the desire for 
light will find its fulfillment. What does the 
organic structure of the ear mean? What does 
the auditory nerve's desire for sound mean? 
Does it not mean that as a part of the same 
purpose and plan, sound has been provided? 
The olfactories call for scents and fragrances. 
And provision is made for the fulfillment of that 
desire. 

Appetite and taste call for flavors and foods. 
And these instinctive desires are amply met in 
the abundant provision of nature. The tactual 
nerves desire something substantial to touch, 
and there are solid substances everywhere. If 
these instinctive desires of flesh and blood are 
provided for by such a perfect plan of unfailing 
fulfillment, what glorious fulfillments may we 
not expect for the instinctive desires of the soul? 
If the less important is so carefully cared for 
by the All-wise Providence, we can not think 
that the most important desires of the soul will 
be left to go uncared for. 
[103] 



He would be a strange artist who would 
take more pains in painting the picture of a 
shrub than he would in painting the picture of 
the Sequoia. A strange sculptor would be he 
who would expend more skill and attention in 
carving a stone for a door-step than for a 
Phidias masterpiece. He would be an incon- 
sistent musician indeed who should bring his 
finest musical faculties to bear in the singing of 
a ditty and should be careless in the rendition 
of Handel's Messiah. No, all the highest work- 
men strain their faculties in the farthest reach 
for the highest and best. 

God is infinitely better than the best of all 
of these. He cares for the least and He cares 
for the greatest. He cares for the lowest and 
He cares for the highest. His loving interest 
traverses the farthest ranges of my soul's need. 
I love to live. I would love to live forever. 
God gave me both of these loves. Neither one 
will be thwarted or unfulfilled if He has His way 
with me. For '*The gift of God is eternal life.*' 
Be glad, my heart, and thankfully take' this 
great, sweet gift of God. 



[ 104 



SEP 19 1912 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: April 2005 

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